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Sundowns to leave late for DR Congo

football15 October 2021 05:25| © Mzansi Football
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Rhulani Mokwena © Backpagepix

Mamelodi Sundowns have decided to travel late to DR Congo for their CAF Champions League second round, first leg at AS Maniema Union, fearful of the standard of the training facilities they will find in the country.

Sundowns begin their 2021-22 campaign with a tricky away trip and co-coach Rhulani Mokwena admits they have changed their plans from how they would normally build up to a continental clash.

"It is a country that we have experience of, even though it is a different city this time, but we are very familiar with the terrain, the weather and maybe that is why in a certain way we manipulated what would be our normal program for us,” Mokwena says.

"We would normally travel three or four days prior to the match but we are leaving a little bit closer to the game because of some of the situations that we know we would face in relation to the lack of proper training facilities.

"So the feeling is maybe to complete our preparations here and move towards a match day minus one and work on where we acclimatise ourselves to the stadium and get a feel of the ambience and the pitch.”

Union defeated Bouenguidi from Gabon 3-1 on aggregate in the last round and Mokwena says they learnt much from analysing those two games.

"We have already started working on the opposition and we know that they play a 4-2-3-1. We have the profile of the opponents in the first leg and we know the personality that they have,” he said.

"In both matches the system was more or less the same and maybe in certain moments also posing different problems with regards to how they attack directly with very aggressive wing play and movement of the wingbacks and very quick strikers.

"The work has been done and we must be worried of the transitions. We have a responsibility and when you have a responsibility, yours is to be diligent and work very hard by investing a lot of hours to make sure that the team is in the right space and ready to win a football match."

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