Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena insists his side will have to fight for maximum points in their remaining group-stage games after they were held by Al-Merrikh this past Saturday.

The Brazilians failed to secure back-to-back wins in the Caf Champions League after they shared the spoils with Al-Merrikh in their goalless draw at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo.

The stalemate has Sundowns remaining at the top of the Group A standings with four points from two games, while Al-Merrikh sits at the foot of the table, level on one point with Al Ahly and Al Hilal.

Mokwena is enthusiastic about the team’s ability to be successful in their campaign as they look to win their first Champions League title since 2016.

“I suppose it was a game of two halves, the first half we played exceptionally well, extremely dominant and created a lot of chances and had six big chances. [The opposition] created opportunities from our carelessness from the ball, and they caught us on the counter-attack, the one that Brian Onyango cleared off the line was a big chance but it came from our situation in having a set piece and turning over the ball,” Mokwena told his club’s official website.

“To be honest, [we were] very stable, too much control and we didn’t feel like we were in trouble, for most parts of the second half, I think technically and tactically we were very good.

“We will have to fight for the other points from Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, and we’ve got to give them the same amount of respect that you would give in terms of the preparations and attention to detail that you would give to Al-Ahly. Everyone was disappointed when we only beat Al-Hilal 1-0, but if you look at the Al-Ahly game against Al-Hilal, when they draw you realise how important it was to win that match and we cannot be blinded by playing the name instead of playing the matches. We’ve got matches to play and certain objectives to reach, and we know that the first objective is to qualify from the group and be in the knockouts.”

He continued: “To be in the knockouts means that we play every single match, including today’s match. Before we even speak about Al-Ahly and the next match we focus on trying to analyse the previous match, and try to see why we could not win it and then try to train and improve.

“In South Africa when we kept saying that we are still a team that is working very hard to get better, people were thinking that we were being modest and humble, but that was just the reality, when people see the performances now and they see where we are, people try to make a lot of noise about it.”