CR Belouizdad head coach Nabil Kouki says they have not given up hope of beating Mamelodi Sundowns ahead of their CAF Champions League quarter-final second leg at Loftus Versveld today.
The Algerian Ligue champions were thrashed 4-1 in Algiers last week which put Sundowns one foot into the semi-finals, where Wydad Atheltic Club awaits.
With Belouizdad needing four goals this afternoon in Tshwane, their backs are against the wall but the Tunisian tactician has not thrown in the white flag just yet.
“For us, we will play for our pride, it will be difficult of course but we’ll try to do something different, go for a win,” Kouki said in the pre-match press conference.
“We know it will be so difficult but there’s always hope and even though we’ll be playing against a very very good team – which they are playing at home, we still have hope and we’ll do our best to get the result.
“I think we have quality players that can do something here and we believe that it’s possible to do this – even though we playing against a very strong team, we will do our best to get a result, hopefully, a win.”
Their experienced goalkeeper Alexis Guendouz’s demeanor didn’t appear positive but he echoed the sentiments of his coach ahead of the game.
“We lost at home, it was difficult,” the Algeria international said. “But we gonna give two hundred percent to win, we still have hope, as the coach said we’ll go for it.
“We are professional, we talked amongst ourselves [after the defeat], there were no excuses and of course, we know what we have to do as professionals.
“I think we’ll learn from what happened in Algeria, turn the page and we’re here to get a result.”
The two sides meet this afternoon in the capital city with kickoff scheduled for 15h00.
