Nine-man Mamelodi Sundowns suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Raja Club Athletic in a CAF Champions League Group B clash in Morocco.
Both Group B matches kicked off at the same time with AS FAR Rabat welcoming AS Maniema Union and Raja battling Sundowns.
Raja understood the task as they knew anything less than three points would put their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages in doubt.
From the word go, it was a hit moment as Lucas Ribeiro got booked inside six minutes alongside Raja midfielder Mohamed Zrida and 14 minutes later Federico Bikoro also got into the referee’s book.Â
After 40 minutes of football, Sundowns were reduced to 10 men after midfielder Bathusi Aubaas received a straight red card following a late tackle.
On the brink of halftime, Raja managed to open the scoring through Benaissa Benamar from corner kick making it 1-0 to the home side.Â
In the second half, Sundowns came looking for that important equalizer and in the 60th minute, Teboho Mokoena had a great free kick, but Anas Zniti was equal to the task.
Ronwen Williams kept Sundowns in the contest after producing a double save in the 68th minute.
The home side were also reduced to 10 men with 10 minutes left on the clock with Marouane Zila getting his marching orders.
Khuliso Mudau was the third player to be sent off deep into added time as Sundowns finished the match with nine men.
In the end, Sundowns were unable to snatch any points as their woeful record in Morocco extended to nine matches, six losses, three draws and zero wins.
