Sundowns taking extended squad to their Champions League base in Egypt

Mamelodi Sundowns are taking a substantial squad of close to 30 players to their base in Egypt where they are scheduled to play Al-Merrikh and Al Ahly over the next two weekends.

The Brazilians depart for Cairo on Tuesday to start preparations for the second match of their Caf Champions League group stages against Al-Merrikh of Sudan at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo on Saturday.

The Sudanese side will play their Champions League home matches in Egypt because their Al-Merrikh Stadium in Omdurman does not meet the new and stringent hosting requirements by Caf.

After the match against Al-Merrikh, Sundowns will turn their attention to a potentially explosive clash against Al Ahly where they will come face to face with former coach Pitso Mosimane on February 25.

“We will take a substantial number of players considering that we are playing two matches,” said Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqthi after their 1-1 draw with Baroka on Monday.

“Normally we take 25 players for one match but this time around we will take a little bit more because we know there are Covid-19 issues and also the fact that that we playing two matches.

“Some of the players are not ready to play the first match and they will only be ready to play the second one. It is one of those things where we have to take as many players as we can.”

Mngqithi went on to explain that staying in Cairo for two weeks is better than making back-to-back trips to North Africa with its often complicated travelling arrangements.

“This issue is two-fold but it is better stay in Egypt than travel in and out. If Egypt Air operated on the days where we would have loved to travel, maybe we could have considered going and coming back twice.

“But we don’t have direct flights because Egypt Air flies on very few days and unfortunately on those we are targeting to go to Egypt they don’t have flights.

“We looked at other airlines but they make travelling very long because there is a stop somewhere.

“I think a stay in Egypt is the best option, we looked at it with the coaches and everybody else involved in the club and we all felt that we will end up having a lot of travel fatigue if we were to travel in and out.

“We will be finding ourselves a very good camping place so that we can be able to have a proper training programme in preparation for the second match.”

Sundowns drew 1-1 with Baroka and Mngqithi was disappointed with the result where they were denied three points at the death.

“It was very disappointing but it was a very tight game, a game that could have been decided on set pieces and Lyle Lakay did very well to score the first goal. Credit must also go to Baroka, I thought they worked very hard, they were hungry and fought for every ball.

“Nonetheless, the team did enough to win the match but it was just unfortunate that we ended getting a draw. I think the boys gave a good account of themselves in a match that was played on a field that was not good on the day and the lighting was not one of the best.”