Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena is targeting 10 points for the CAF Champions League group stages campaign.
This, according to Mokwena, will allow the Brazilians to sail through smoothly into the next stage of the prestigious continental competition.
Last Saturday, Mokwena’s charges opened their Group B fixtures with a slender 1-0 victory over Al Hilal of Sudan at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria. The solitary goal came via the red-hot youngster Cassius Mailula.
This means that the Tshwane-based side has now registered three points and will need seven more from the remaining five matches.
The Premier Soccer League defending champions will this weekend travel to west Africa for their second Group B match against Cotton Sports of Cameroon, and are hoping for maximum points before they meet nemesis and archrivals Al Ahly of Egypt in their third match.
“First it was to get three points, the target is to move as close as possible to 10 [points],” said Mokwena on the Sundowns website after the Al Hilal victory.
“History tells you that the lowest number of points to come out of the group stages is four, but we want to try to get as close as possible to 10 points, because that guarantees you more or less a position in the knockouts. So, three points regardless of the scoreline is very important [and] a clean sheet.
“It could’ve been more, I think we scored a very good goal for the second one but unfortunately it was judged offside. In certain moments, we were very good and we played the game, we were comfortable even though we had a few jitters in certain moments.
A few misplaced passes but I thought the boys were very good and applied themselves very well. We could’ve scored more, we could’ve created more chances, we didn’t give a lot against a very dangerous side on counter attacks. We were resolute and we didn’t give a lot of chances.”
Downs nearly doubled their advantage through their in-form young star player Mailula, who scored an outstanding goal in the 47th minute. However, an offside call was made.
Mokwena remained content with the scoreline but noted that the role of video assistant referee (VAR) will play a crucial role in the knockout stages of the competition.
“We know that VAR will come into play in the quarter-finals and that will assist a great deal,” he said.
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