Daniel Gimenez, the assistant coach of Al Hilal Omdurman has insisted his side came to South Africa to beat Mamelodi Sundowns.
The Sudanese champions will face Masandawana in the opener of the CAF Champions League group stage.
Downs beat the same opponents 2-0 at home last season, but Al Hilal will not be an easy pushover, entering the game on the back of a 19-game unbeaten run which dates back to May 2021.
“We are not coming here to draw, we are coming to compete and to win,” Gimenez said when asked by iDiski Times.
“We want to keep going on, we want to move forward, we know it’s going to be a very tough game. We know we are playing away against a very tough team.
“Our target always is to win, we don’t think about drawing our losing, we just want to win as a team, as coaching staff for our fans – the deserve it.
“We’ll try our best to win the game.”
Gimenez, who is assistant to Portuguese head coach Joao Mota, also insisted that they will not focus on individual stars of the Brazilians but rather how to beat them as a team.
“They are a team. I’m sure the coach cares about the team and not specific players,” he added.
“Of course some players are better in some positions or they have characteristics they can add to the team but we are worried about the whole team, not only specific players.
“We know that Sundowns are a big team, they are one of the biggest clubs in Africa. We know the level of their players.
“But also we prepared very well for the game. We considers ourselves as a big club in Africa. We have to compete and tomorrow we will see if we can get the result we want.”
Sundowns face the Sudanese side at 18:30 at Royal Bafokeng Stadium later on Friday.
Story by David Kappel (@kappilinho).
