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Mamelodi Sundowns FC players celebrate after scoring a goal.
Former Mamelodi Sundowns captain, Hlompho Kekana, has tipped the Pretoria-based club to reach another CAF Champions League semi-final – this time at the expense of Tunisian giants, Esperance. The two teams will clash in a second leg quarterfinal match in Tunis on Tuesday evening.
Sundowns registered their first win against the North African side after a slender 1-0 win at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria last Tuesday. But the occasion was marred by crowd violence after the match.
Tuesday’s match will be the sixth meeting between Sundowns and Esperance. The first ever meeting between the two footballing giants was back in 2017. Esperance beat Sundowns 2-1 in the away tie, and the game in Pretoria ended in a goalless draw.
The two teams clashed again last season with the North Africans again emerging victorious over two semi-final legs. But, according to Kekana, the Brazilians stand a good chance of turning the tables on Esperance this season, more so after last week’s 1-0 victory in the quarterfinal first leg.
“In the Champions League, you meet the best teams in the continent. So, everybody believes that they are good enough to come out of the deficit and even win the match. But it’s how you take the matches, how you take your moments in the 90 minutes, and I think Mamelodi Sundowns are in a good position now going to the away match with a 1-0 lead. It was gonna be very difficult to go there with a zero zero,” says Kekana.
Despite the one goalless draw in 2017, the two teams were only separated by a goal in the other four meetings, and Kekana expects another closely contested affair.
“Two teams that are fighting to go into the semifinal … it’s a match of very big consequences this one, when you look at how things are going in the Champions League. You know, the underdogs, which are the teams that people normally overlook, will go all the way to the final, and I fancy Mamelodi Sundowns to go all the way to the final,” adds Kekana.
Tuesday’s match kicks off at nine PM and will be broadcast live on a number of the SABC’s platforms, including SABC 1.
