Mokwena not carried away by 4-1 lead against CR Belouizdad

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena is not carried away by the 4-1 scoreline advantage against CR Belouizdad heading into the CAF Champions League quarter-final second leg.

Sundowns host CR Belouizdad at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday afternoon.


The DStv Premiership champions have a comfortable lead against the Algerians, after they outplayed them in their own backyard last weekend.

Despite Masandawana expected to ease past the north Africans and march on to the semi-finals for the first time in three years, Mokwena is anticipating a tough game.

“I was telling the players that normally on my days off I spend more time on the team and trying to do a lot of work, but yesterday I spent time on Real Madrid and trying to find out what makes them so good, especially in the Champions League,” Mokwena said during a press conference at Chloorkop on Thursday afternoon.

“There are two games that I watched, the [Real Madrid] game against Liverpool when they went to Anfield and won 5-2,” said Mokwena.

“I watched the game to see what schemes and organisational forms they had. When they hosted Liverpool at Santiago Bernabeu, they played the game as if their lives depended on it, and as if they didn’t have a heavy score that they could fall on and use as a cushion. That was the biggest lesson.

“That is the message we have delivered to the players, we have addressed it from a psychological perspective.

“You don’t even have to go very far to understand them [CR Belouizdad]. Two seasons ago we played the very same football club in the group stages, and we beat them, but they came back to Pretoria and they beat us.

“There are only two teams who have done that in the Champions League, and they are one of the two.

“So, we must know that they can beat us, and that we must be at our best and know the quality that they have.”

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