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Mamelodi Sundowns players training ahead of match against Esperance of Tunisia.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach, Miguel Cardoso, and his players realise that they cannot rest on their laurels, despite enjoying a slender 1-nil lead against Esperance of Tunisia.
Sundowns defeated the Tunisian giants in the first leg semi-final clash in Tunisia last Sunday.
The winners of the second leg tie at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday afternoon will advance to this year’s CAF Champions League final.
The second leg semi-final CAF Champions League between Sundowns and Esperance is a sold-out affair.
All 52-thousand tickets for the match were sold out within a week after going on sale. The two teams will be meeting for the third time in three seasons in the Champions League.
Last season Sundowns got their revenge over Esperance beating them 1-nil on aggregate. A season before the Tunisians beat Sundowns when Miguel Cardoso was in charge of the north African club.
Cardoso expects another closely contested affair.
“Where we stand is to look at our emotions and understand the immittance of the match. We want to play well, and we have a will to succeed. We will play our style, but we know what lies ahead. We respect our opponents, but we also respect ourselves. But the good thing is that we are playing in the environment we understand compared to when we played in the first leg.”
Cardoso says they will have to dig deep if they wanted to reach their second successive Champions League final.
“It is just 1-0 and both teams have the potential to score in any match. We did it in the previous match, but there’s still a lot of work to do. There will be a lot of running involved. I expect a very tactical match. The margin in our matches, it’s so small. This is going to be a game of small margins.”
Sundowns players understand the importance of this match. Defender Keegan Johannes says Sundowns are targeting their second continental title after lifting the trophy 10 years ago.
“Obviously when you look at it, we got a positive result away from home. But like what the coach said we’ve already closed that door. We can’t be ahead of ourselves and put the cart before the horse. We need to focus on the job at hand.”
Sundowns are unbeaten in the Champions League in the past two seasons.
Preparations for the #TotalEnergiesCAFCL semi-finals are done and dusted 💪#Sundowns #AreyengMasandawana pic.twitter.com/9iwoG5wUUH
— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) April 17, 2026
But Esperance are capable of causing an upset in Pretoria according to coach Patrice Beaumele.
“It was a long trip to come here but it’s always good to come to South Africa. This is the second part of the match, and we have to score if we want to stay alive in this competition. We played well in the first leg, unfortunately, we couldn’t score. This is football, anything is possible.”
The Sundowns and Esperance match kick’s off at 3 PM and it will be screened live on SABC1. In another second leg semi-final clash on Saturday evening RS Berkane will battle it out with AS FAR in the all Moroccan derby.
