Mamelodi Sundowns will arrive at Borg El Arab Stadium on Sunday night to encounter a close to capacity 86 000 crowd and noise levels they have not experienced yet on their way to the Caf Champions League final against Zamalek.
Downs and most of South Africa might have thought most of the job was done winning the 2016 final with a 3-0 home victory against the White Knights at Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville in the first leg on Saturday.
Zamalek’s supporters, though, clearly have no such notions. By 6.45pm a good 60 000 were in the stadium. Amongst the world’s most passionate supporters, Downs can expect chanting in unison at very high noise levels, and intimidation from lasers and immense cheers with every Knights touch of the ball.
It is an at once exhilarating and almost bone-chillingly terrifying atmosphere that the supporters of Zamalek, and their Cairo rivals Al Ahly, are capable of producing, which cannot be described in words or genuinely experienced via television images.
Sundowns will not want to concede early, or they are in for an uncomfortable match at the super-modern venue, which has been painted in Zamalek’s white, apart from a small block of Downs’ 150 travelling fans, whose singing will be easily drowned out.
The attendance had originally been limited to 20 000 by the Egytptian authorities.
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