It will be all or nothing for Mamelodi Sundowns and coach Rulani Mokwena when they go up against Esperance in the CAF Champions League clash.
Sundowns host the Tunisian giants in the semifinal second leg at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Friday night. The match starts at 8pm.
With Masandawana trailing 1-0 after succumbing to a defeat last week, the message from Mokwena to his troops would be to go for the jugular against the Blood and Gold.
Sundowns find themselves in a similar position as last season, when they reached the semifinals of the Champions League but went into the second leg without that all-important away goal.
Esperance in the driving seat
The Brazilians would have hoped to return with an away goal from Tunisia; however, Esperance closed shop and defended well enough to put themselves in the driving seat.
Last season, the DStv Premiership champions missed out on the opportunity to compete for the ultimate prize in the final after losing out to Wydad Casablanca due to an away-goal rule.
They played to a goalless draw in Casablanca, Morocco, and drew 2-2 at Loftus — an outcome that Mokwena admits continues to haunt him.
“At the beginning of the season, Neo Maema said my talks are very painful, and that is because I still have a lot of pain from how we lost the Champions League last season,” Mokwena said recently.
Through the pain and suffering, Mokwena stated that one of the lessons he learned from the continental competition was the importance of away goals.
Away-goal rule
“Even though the pain comes with a good sense of motivation, the biggest lesson I learned was the importance of the away goals.
“And I said to myself, right from the beginning, that if we are to lose a tie, it must not be because we conceded goals.
“That is one of the things I worked very hard on with the technical team and the coaches to try and improve on our side.
“You can just imagine being the best team on the continent, not losing a game [in the Champions League], and exiting like that.
“So, Sundowns cannot afford to be home in the Champions League and concede three goals; it’s not possible because of the away goals rule.”
For Sundowns to advance to the final of the Champions League for the first time since 2016, they must win by more than one goal and prevent Esperance from getting an away goal.
