The highly anticipated first leg of the CAF Champions League semi-final between Mamelodi Sundowns and African giants Al Ahly did not live up to expectations as the two teams huffed and puffed to a goalless draw at the Loftus Stadium on Saturday.
The Egyptians, who are the defending champions, will be happy with an away draw and it will surely be a mountain to climb for the Brazilians when they travel to Cairo for the second leg next Friday.
But the South Africans will be pleased that Ahly did not score an away goal in Pretoria.
In as much as it will be a tough encounter for the Brazilians to come out victorious in Cairo, with Ahly proving to be a different beast in the knockout stages of the competition, coach Miguel Cardoso is confident that his side has what it takes to edge the club of the century.
The Sundowns yellow army will also be pleased with the return of captain and dribbling wizard Themba “Mshishi” Zwane who made a comeback after being sidelined by an injury. It will take some time for him to get back to full fitness, but he showed glimpses of his old brilliance with a few nice touches.
Going to the dull match itself, Cardoso made a brave call to drop under-pressure defender Lucas Suarez to the bench, following a string of costly errors.
Mosa Lebusa started ahead of the Argentinian and did a better job in shutting the back door alongside Bafana Bafana international Grant Kekana.
The supporter turnout was decent from the yellow nation, considering that it’s the Easter weekend and the game was not the usual free entry.
Also, Sundowns made sure that they beefed up their security after the CAF Disciplinary Board met on Wednesday to deliberate on various crowd control issues that transpired in Mzansi a few weeks ago.
Masandawana and Pirates were found guilty and were given hefty fines of $100,000 (R1.9m) and $50,000 (R941,095) respectively.
