SA clubs face some tough opponents

SOUTH AFRICAN Premiership clubs Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates will need to see off some of Africa’s big hitters if they are to keep their hopes of conquering the content alive.

Sundowns are in Group A of the Champions League, alongside 2017 tournament winners Wydad Casablanca (Morocco), Lobi Stars of Nigeria, and Ivory Coast giants ASEC Mimosas, who won the competition back in 1998. This will mean three lengthy journeys for Downs – two to West Africa, and one right up to the north of the continent, which could make it tough for Sundowns to maintain their challenge on the domestic front in terms the league title and the Nedbank Cup.

The Pretoria club, African champions in 2016, will be meeting Wydad Casablanca for the third successive season, and although the two will probably be favourites to advance to the quarter-final stage, ASEC and Lobi Stars will be anything but easy prey. In short, it’s a very tricky group the South African club find themselves in.

Pirates are in Group B, which also includes defending champions Esperance (the Tunisian giants upset Al Ahly in the 2018 final), as well as Zimbabwean outfit FC Platinum and Guinean team Horoya AC, who are regulars in this competition.

Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic, who reached the semifinals of the 2011 Champions League with Sudanese giants Al Hilal Omdurman, and also more recently had success with the Ugandan national team, will be relishing the challenge – indeed, it was likely that his impressive continental feats were taken into consideration when he returned for a second spell at Pirates last season.

Speaking after the draw, it was clear the Serbian already has a very good knowledge of the teams the Sea Robbers will be up against, and he’s confident his team can progress.

“Pirates is satisfied that we are in a group with defending champions Esperance,” he said.

“They are a playable team remembering that in the semi-final against Primeiro de Agosto (in October 2018), how they went through – they needed support from elsewhere (the Angolan side had felt cheated by some of the refereeing decisions) and they later won the Champions League.”

“(Horoya) are a team of the best players in West Africa playing in Guinea,” he continued. | ANA