Esperance Sportive de Tunis head coach Maher Kanzari says it will be a different ball game when they host Mamelodi Sundowns in Rades next week.
Sundowns travel to Tunis this weekend with a 1-0 advantage from the first leg quarter-final with Peter Shalulile on the scoresheet at Loftus Versfeld this past Tuesday.
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Miguel Cardoso insisted they will not go there to defend their lead, as it could prove disastrous for their quest for the semi-final, Kanzari says they should be expecting attack-minded football, contrasting to the 20% of possession they had in Tshwane this week.
“Defensively we were good but in terms of attack we had many injuries, so we were not that good, but once we get back our attacking players, we believe in the second leg, in attack we will improve and we will try to win the game,” Kanzari said.
“What I can tell you it will be a big game in Tunisia, if they can score one, we can score three and go through – so we’re playing attacking football, I’m confident in playing attacking football in Tunisia.”
One of his tactical decisions of playing star playmaker Youcef Bellaili as a false nine, backfired as he was marked out of the game by Grant Kekana and Lucas Suarez, which he stated was forced due to several injuries to their preferred striker options.
“As I said there were some attacking players injured, so I rolled the dice, I tried to play him, as you said, a false nine, he was good in some instances, in others, not so good, but we conceded a goal, which was a lack of concentration,” he explained.
“But without that, it could have been a 0-0 so I’m confident it will be a big game in Tunisia where will go for a win. So yeah, Sundowns had the ball most of the time but they had not many clear cut occasions, besides the mistake we made.
“I don’t think that it will matter in the next game, in Tunisia it will be a different ball game. In the last five years we know Sundonws and a technically and tactically good team but as I said, possession is not a key factor to get a result.
“We will try to play another game. Yes they can have the ball but trust me, in Tunisia we will not play the same game, we will try and win to get to the semi-finals.”
