Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has explained why he believes Al Ahly are not the strongest team in the CAF Champions League this season.
The Mamelodi Sundowns mentor has insisted that the CAF Champions League defending champions are not as fresh as they used to be after playing too many games in small space of time this season.
He warned his side from getting ahead of themselves after their historic double over the Egyptian giants before listing other dangerous teams in the Champions League.
“To be honest I would not want to take the wins against Al Ahly and get carried away because the fact of football is that Al Ahly has played far too many matches,” Manqoba said after the match.
“They are not as fresh as other teams. If we fair probably now they are close to match number 60 in this season and that makes them to be not as sharp as they can. They can still be very dangerous given time but they played a very tough match on Tuesday against Pyramids FC and they won that match.
“They came to this one, we know they have lost their right-back [Mohamed] Hany, they have lost some players in the process and they were not at the level where they which they can be if they are fresh and they have got all their ammunition within the team.
“In as much as I want to take the credit of us winning the match, but I do not want us to think this was the strongest team we could’ve played with in the Champions League this year.
“If I look at Raja [Casablanca] in that other group, I look at Esperanca Sagadra from Angola, Esperance from Tunisia, Wydad [Casablanca]. Zamalek is out from the group stages, they cannot go anywhere – already that says to you there are other teams that are stronger out there.
“So we can not be carried or start thinking we’re bigger. We must be realistic and say, maybe the good that the players have given against this team, helping us to qualify for the quarter-finals very early, it’s positive in a sense that maybe we can give a little bit more effort and attention to the championship and the Nedbank Cup before we go on to the quarter-finals.
“But it’s very good for the moral that we won the two matches against Al Ahly. It is even better to know that we beat them back=to-back because that is historic but I would not want the team to get carried away.”
Sundowns will leave South Africa on Wednesday to Sudan, where they will be facing Al-Hilal Omdurman on Saturday afternoon at 15h00 (SATM).
