Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane admits his side will take a draw in Saturday’s match in Morocco against Wydad Casablanca in the Caf Champions League group stages.
Downs will face the Moroccan giants on Saturday evening as they look to build on their impressive 3-0 win over Petro de Luanda of Angola at Loftus Versfeld last weekend.
Their opponents on Saturday, though, kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw away with USM Alger and will be looking to take advantage of their impressive home form against the Brazilians.
Mosimane’s men have historically struggled when travelling to face the Moroccan side and the former Bafana Bafana coach admits that he has struggled to crack it so far against Wydad.
‘That game is like winning the Top Eight for me, I just cannot crack it. It’s tough. We haven’t won or drawn there. We always lose,’ Mosimane said.
‘But we did score a goal last year and needed one more at home last time to go through and eliminate them. But we try again because it means we haven’t tried hard enough. If we say we are putting more, it means we need more. Maybe this is the time because it is the ninth time and they are a stubborn team,’ he added.
The Downs coach also says he is looking at the long game ahead, as picking up at least a draw in Morocco will give Downs a strong advantage in Group C.
‘We don’t struggle with them here, but they are experienced. I saw them away in Algiers when they played USM, who scored early. But I knew Wydad would score and they got a draw, which is good for us because nobody else has maximum points. We should stay there, it’s in our hands.
‘Don’t let them get the points that they want. We must play smart and make sure Wydad doesn’t get full points, even if we don’t win. If we can get them to only have two points out of six, that will be big. You must know who is your competition. We need to keep Wydad with few points as possible. When I look at the programme I think everyone will get points from Petro. The biggest one will be to win away from home against Petro, that means we would have done a big job if we get that result.’
