Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies attacking midfielder Noxolo Cesane has reacted to her side reaching this year’s CAF Women’s Champions League final, saying the semi-final showing against Kawempe Muslim Ladies proved how much they wanted it.
Cesane scored the winner in the 4-1 victory over the Ugandan side in Egypt on Wednesday to help Sundowns reach their overall third final at the competition. This was Cesane’s first Champions League goal and her seventh overall this season, six coming in the Hollywoodbets Super League.
It has been an enduring period for the Godfrey Sapula-led side on the continent in the last two seasons. They got knocked out at the group stage in 2024 and missed the finals completely in 2025 having lost out at the regional qualifiers.
The Banyana Banyana international, meanwhile, spoke about the intensity of the semi-final and how her side treated each game throughout the campaign as a final.
“The game was high intensity and I don’t have much to say about the game,” said Cesane to Mamelodi Sundowns media department.
“But it showed that both of the teams really wanted to win, really wanted to go to the final. And I think we’ve done a great job by winning this final out of the finals played, which is [all] the games because each game was a final game for us.
“I mean, despite playing our football the instructions from the coach were to make sure that we discomfort them, we go forward and make sure we score early in the game, so we’ll be able to manage the game in a way.
“If it happened that they come at us at least, we would be able to recover during the game. I mean, it was a hard game, but we all wanted [to win].”