Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has played down the relevance of recent form ahead of their meeting with Al Ahli SC, insisting the Saudi Arabian giants remain a formidable opponent despite changes to their squad and coaching staff.
Sundowns head into the fixture having won four of their last five matches, while Al Ahli have recorded two victories in their previous five games.
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The Saudi side have also undergone significant changes since last season, with Franck Kessie leaving for Atalanta, Enzo Milot moving to Al-Diriyah on loan and Riyad Mahrez departing after the expiry of his contract.
Al Ahli have bolstered their squad with the arrivals of Eduard Spertsyan from Krasnodar, Francisco Trincão from Sporting Lisbon and Ibrahima Diaby from Cercle Brugge.
There has also been a change in the dugout, with Marino Pusic replacing Matthias Jaissle following the latter’s move to Premier League side Newcastle United – after guiding the club to back-to-back Asian Champions League triumphs.
Cardoso acknowledged the changes but warned against reading too much into Al Ahli’s recent results.
“This team is back-to-back champions of Asia, they changed a few players, as you know, they changed the squad and three very strong players left, but others of the same level came in,” Cardoso said.
“They changed the coach; another quality coach came in – you also look at our team from last year and if you see there are three or four players that were high-quality players that will also not play this match. We also brought quality players in.”
The Sundowns coach believes the timing of the fixture presents an additional challenge, admitting he would have preferred to face Al Ahli later in the campaign when his own squad is more settled.
“I confess to you I would have liked to have played this competition later in the season, 100% – if you would ask me I’d like to play it later in the season. I think we will be stronger as the season goes forward,” he added.
However, with the fixture now upon them, Cardoso says Sundowns must produce at their maximum rather than rely on either side’s recent form.
“But this is the moment where we are and we have to take ourselves to the limit and whatever games both teams played, will not speak for what happens on the four lines.”
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