Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams has highlighted Al Ahli key players ahead of the FIFA African-Asian Pacific Cup final today at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Sundowns qualified by winning the CAF Champions League, their second continental title in 10 years, while the Saudi side had to defeat Auckland FC in the playoffs last month. The winner of this clash will progress to the Challenger Cup where they will meet the winners of the FIFA Derby of the Americas.
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Williams named some of the players who he thinks will be key against his side citing how important they were for their respective countries at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including his opposite number Eduardo Mendy of Senegal.
“When you look at their team, there’s so many guys that were at the World Cup,” Williams told Mamelodi Sundowns media department.
“Merih [Demiral] played for Turkey, [Roger] Ibanez with Brazil, and obviously like you mentioned, Ivan Toney, Mendy as well. Someone that you know, obviously I know quite well, having watched his career and see him achieve amazing things with Senegal.
“So, it’ll be good to finally face him. I haven’t got an opportunity to play against him, and obviously I’ve taken keen interest on his career and what he’s done for the goalkeeping department-you know-he’s been amazing.
“It’s a team with a lot of experience, high-quality players. [Francisco] Trincao that was in the Portuguese national team as well. So, it’s going to be a good one because if you look at our side I think we’ve also got a number of players that were at the World Cup. It’s going to be a good competition, a good game. And we just need to prepare well. And we know it’s going to be difficult. It’s not going to be easy.”
The Bafana international added that though the Brazilians are yet to do a thorough analysis on their opponents, he believes the sides are enjoying a similar form in their respective domestic leagues.
“We didn’t really get time to analyse them, but we have watched a few of their games here and there to familiarize ourselves with them,” added the Bafana Bafana captain.
“And obviously, we’ve seen their form. It’s been up and down. They won a lot of games. They lost a few games as well. They’re a team that scores a lot of goals. If you check the game they play, they score close to three goals per game, but also, they concede a lot of goals.
“So, it’s almost similar to us, where we’ve been scoring so many goals, but uncharacteristic of us, we’ve been conceding as well. So hopefully we can rectify our mistakes. Obviously, we got this week now to work on it, and just look forward to this massive, massive, massive FIFA intercontinental final.”
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