Rulani Mokwena has explained the football heritage after his side MC Alger were drawn against Al Hilal and last season’s CAF Champions League beaten finalists Mamelodi Sundowns.
Monday’s draw pitted last season’s finalists Sundowns being drawn against Al Hilal from Sudan, Mokwena’s MC Alger and talk of the continent FC St Eloi Lupopo. Two matches are expected to be played this year and the other four will be played early next year.
Alger, who are participating in the CAFCL group stages only for the second time in the last five years, aim to emulate last season’s performance which saw them being knocked out in the quarterfinal by Orlando Pirates.
Mokwena is clear that they cannot run away from the fact that Al Hilal and Sundowns have more experience than them in this tournament but because of what MC Alger have when it comes to facilities they will push to make it to the knockout stages.
“I am happy with the team we have; we are improving, we are working very hard and we understand the challenge,” Mokwena told the media.
“We are not wet behind the ears and naive, we approach the Champions League with a lot of humility, understanding that this is the fifth time the club is in the Champions League group stages.
“The last four times we were in the group stages, we progressed twice out of the group, and we progressed twice out of the group having only finish second in the group and in the times we’ve progressed, we’ve only been able to win two games out of six so on one hand this gives us a lot of motivation.
“We know what we are capable of, but we also understand football heritage that Al Hilal have more heritage in the Champions League than us, that Mamelodi Sundowns have more heritage than us in the group, but we also understand that we have all the conditions to make a very good run in the Champions League.
“We have an incredible stadium with an incredible fan base; we have incredible facility and incredible staff. We have a hard-working and an ambitious group that has a lot of experience from last season Champions League.
“And so, these conditions allow us to dream, to work very hard while staying extremely humble to make sure that we represent not just the club but the entire nation of Algeria and this is our focus but slowly we are getting better but there’s still a long way to the Champions League.”
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