Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says he won’t be fooled by Summer Dynamos coach Clinton Larsen insisting his side has no chance against Downs in this weekend’s Nedbank Cup quarterfinal.

The Brazilians are undoubtedly heavy favourites heading into the clash against the ABC Motsepe outfit with the two sides worlds apart.

Speaking in the build up to the clash Larsen insisted that his side little chance of competing with ‘African giants’.

“I don’t think it is about us stopping Sundowns. This Nedbank Cup has just been a bonus for us this season,” Larsen told the media on Wednesday.

“So, this game is not about getting to the semifinals, because beating Sundowns nobody seems can do it. They are a free-scoring team, the best team on the continent at the moment.

“Who are we from this little team from Chatsworth to take down the giants of Africa? I have been in the semis of this cup in the past [with Arrows in the 2016/17 season and Chippa United in 2018/19], you need a bit of luck.

“But it is all about my players going out there enjoying the occasion, but giving maximum effort and making it difficult for Sundowns because at the moment we all know they are unstoppable.”

“Their average percentage ratio is 60 to 65%. So, what’s important is what we do with the remaining percent when we have the ball.

“How can we hurt Sundowns with the limited possession we have? Not many teams have managed to do that and it is up to us to come up with a plan on how we use it.

“The key is going to be what we do with the limited possessions that we are going to have.”

Despite Larsen quite clearly playing down his team’s chances, Mngqithi insisted he they wont be taking their opposition lightly.

“One thing I can tell you about football is that there is no game a coach goes to play without thinking they could cause an upset,” Mngqithi explained to the media yesterday.

“When Clinton says they stand no chance, if you listen to that, you will be fooled. The truth of the matter is, when he was coaching Bloemfontein Celtic he would come with a very low block against us to try and make sure he frustrates us as much as possible and steal the result at the end.

“He has done that several times, so now he is coming with this team that is unknown to many people. It is easy for people to think it will be a walkover because we are playing an ABC Motsepe League [side]. But this team has just qualified from their stream in KwaZulu-Natal for the playoffs.

“This is one of the well-resourced teams in the ABC Motsepe League in KZN. I don’t want to be fooled by what Clinton said. I know he is coming to spring a surprise here and we have to guard against any element of complacency.”

“They have quite a big number of players that have experience in the PSL and even some of the games they have played in the league are not very helpful [in analysing them] because of age restriction,” he said.

“In the Nedbank, they will bring a completely different team with a lot of experienced players. But we are confident that we will give it our best shot and the players will be ready to compete and understand the fact that they are coached by Clinton, who is a very capable coach.”

The two teams clash with a spot in the semi-finals up for grabs on Saturday afternoon.