Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has revealed that Themba Zwane and Rivaldo Coetzee is available for selection when they play host to AS Maniema Union in the Caf Champions League on Sunday.

Zwane and Coetzee were rest during their midweek action of the DStv Premiership when they secured a narrow 1-0 win over Golden Arrows at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.

However, Mngqithi has since confirmed that the Sundowns duo are back in contention for the return leg after they played out to a 2-2 draw in the first leg.

“I wouldn’t really say it was a difficult game to be honest, I would maybe highlight some of the challenges that we had, [such as] the temperatures being very high and the humidity as well, which makes it very difficult for players to play at our normal intensity that they are used to. The Astroturf also did not help that much, we struggled with firm passes, many of our passes were cut more especially in the first half. We made a mistake of thinking we are playing on a normal pitch because the artificial turf was new which was good, but the fact that it was new made it a little bit heavier in terms of the ball not moving really fast.”

He added: “The opposition played how we expected. We had profiled them and we knew there were three areas that they can hurt you in. Firstly, It is their transition from defence to attack, they are powerful and very strong. Secondly, [it is] their wide channels, very powerful full-backs [that are] always overlapping, wingers coming into half-spaces and we expected that and it’s what came out of the match, Thirdly, [It’s] on set pieces, we know they are very dangerous, very aggressive, they compete for every ball and those are the areas that we expected from the match.

“In terms of the match itself, in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) at times you get away with a whole lot of mistakes, but in the Champions League, it’s a little bit different. If you were to check the number of chances that they created on the day, they did not create that much chance, probably Denis [Onyango] was off duty for the better part of the game but one situation in mistake by Mosa [Lebusa], I can tell you in the PSL there’s a very big chance that they could not have conceded even from that mistake, we could have easily defended that situation.

“Themba Zwane and Rivaldo Coetzee are back, they are eligible for selection. We believe they can help us, we had reasons not to take them to Durban, more especially Rivaldo [because] he had three yellow cards, we were a little bit unsure in that space. [With] Zwane it’s always important to try and refresh him because he is very important to us, I think they will be a part of the team that will be [playing on Sunday],” concluded Manqoba.