Mamelodi Sundowns’ Mokwena reveals Caf Champions League target

Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena has boldly declared that winning this season’s Caf Champions League title is their prime objective.

The South Africans begin their Champions League campaign in a first-round, first leg match away at Maniema Union in DR Congo at Stade des Martyrs de la Pentecote on Sunday.

While most coaches are usually diplomatic about their Champions League intentions, Mokwena has talked straight about their objectives as he also declared readiness for Maniema.

“We try to win every match and the players know this. We understand winning the Champions League is a culmination of winning every single game and that is our objective for this season,” Mokwena told the media. 

“We have done our homework. The first part is sending a delegation to try to find out a little more about the conditions. So we had an advance team that arrived a couple of days prior to us coming here. 

“We are as ready as we can be. We shouldn’t be here if we were not ready. We had to come prepared to win the match

“We believe we have the best possibilities with the preparations we have had. We are here to win a football match. For us, preparation eliminates fear and that’s what we want. We want to try and dominate the game and play the best game we possibly can.”

It is the first time ever for Sundowns to clash against Maniema and Mokwena says they have attained as much information as possible on their opponents who are not well known in South Africa.

They are currently third in the DR Congo domestic league, having played four games so far.

“We know a lot about them [Maniema], we have done a lot behind the scenes to analyse," added Mokwena.

“We checked not only the last two matches they played in these qualifiers, we also watched their last two domestic league games against Renaissance and AS Vita.

“We know the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. We know their reliance on a player like [Taboria] Simete from the back with balls being delivered to the strikers on top. They present different problems but the most consistent is the number 8 [Likwela] Yelemaya.

“We have to be very careful and treat them with a lot of respect and humility but approach the game with the desire to win.”

To reach this stage of the Champions League, Maniema went past Gabonese side Bouenguidi.