After Kaizer Chiefs’ highly anticipated CAF Champions League match against Wydad Casablanca was called off, Mamelodi Sundowns group phase fixture against CR Belouizdad on February 23 in Algeria will go ahead.
Chiefs were not able to travel to Morocco to play Wydad because of Covid-19 and visa issues.
But Sundowns, who got their campaign off to a perfect start after their 2-0 victory over Al-Hilal at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday, look set to continue with their group phase matches next week.
Downs co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi had nothing but praise for CAF. “I think CAF must be commended for trying to have some compliance officers coming from different countries,” Mngqithi said after the match.
“We were worried that if you are going into a country and you are testing there, and they cheat, you end up having a lot of players that are testing positive while in essence they are not. It was going to be a concern, but we are trying to address that because they know in the Champions League anything can happen.
“Kaizer Chiefs could not go to Morocco because of the laws of the country and all that. We thought that Algeria would have problems with us, but fortunately, it looks like we are getting the visas.”
With matches continuing to be played behind closed doors, Mngqithi feels this has levelled the playing field as teams are not facing hostile conditions from supporters on match days.
“The fact that there are no crowd levels the playing field a little bit, but it takes away a little bit of our play as a team because at Sundowns we have the drum beat. We always expect to try to keep the ball and keep rhythm and cohesion of the team,” Mngqithi said.
“But when you don’t have the crowd, you don’t get to play our way because it is very close to a training match. It is just that the stakes are high. We are trying our level best to make the players understand that there being no crowd is just a leveller in terms of the playing field.
“There is no pressure from the 12th player, but one will say it is the same for us when we go to them and TP Mazembe. If you know what it is like there with supporters, then you will understand and appreciate that maybe if you are going there and there is no crowd, it might be a different ball game.”
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