Coach Pitso Mosimane’s side arrive in Kampala today with a 2-1 lead but will be wary of what KCCA can do after Geoffrey Sserunkuma’s crucial away goal gave the Ugandans immense belief ahead of the weekend’s Caf Champions League fixture.
“We need to be cautious for the second leg and roll up our sleeves because it won’t be an easy game on that artificial pitch,” Mosimane, who team play on grass, is quoted in South African press.
“It’s going to be tough‚ that I predict. Our mentality will have to be right.” Should Sundowns fail the test against KCCA, they will join recent Champions League winners including Al Ahly of Egypt and DRC’s TP Mazembe to embarrassingly suffer early elimination.
“But we don’t have to win‚ by the way‚” Mosimane added, alluding to the one-goal lead that Sundowns have. The South African champions will continue their African title defence with just a draw, or defeat - in which case they must score two goals.
Return of Billiat
The one thing for sure is that Mosimane holds utmost respect for his opponents. “They worked hard,” he said of KCCA’s resilience after Mike Mutebi’s boys withstood Sundowns early bombardment to eventually get something out of the game. “They are a hard-working team‚ they really worked off the ball‚ they fight‚ they run‚ they don’t give up‚ they have the hope.
“It won’t be an easy game for them either because they have to push everybody up-front to go score. And then we can play on the break‚ also because we’ve got that ability. So we’ll see. We have to defend well.”
Elsewhere, the return leg might have come too soon for recovering Ugandan goalkeeper Denis Onyango but the Brazilians are likely to welcome back from injury their best outfield player in striker Khama Billiat, who missed the Pretoria tie
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