Downs focused on making rare history
First leg defeat fails to diminish hopes of qualifying
MAMELODI Sundowns will face a potentially tougher A S Vita Club as they seek to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their African Champions League tie at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Wednesday.
Sundowns lost in the D R Congo earlier this month against a Vita side depleted by injury, but coach Florent Ibenge has revealed he expects to have a full-strength side for the second leg.
That includes a return for Ghana striker Bernard Morrison to add sting to their attack.
“Our goal is well known. It’s qualification [for the group stages] at all costs,” Ibenge told reporters in the DRC. “Morrison has fully recovered and is part of the travelling party. [Nelson] Munganga and Lomalisa [Mutambala] are also fit. Everyone is available.”
Vita warmed up for the return fixture with a 3-1 domestic league victory over arch-rivals Motema Pembe last Wednesday that extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 24 games.
Ibenge says his side have styled their playing philosophy on Spanish giants Barcelona, even if there is an obvious gulf in class between the respective squads.
“Our philosophy is to keep the ball. We want to play like Barcelona, but football is about hard work in training,” he said.
Only twice before has a South African club lost the first leg of a Champions League tie and come back to claim outright victory.
Orlando Pirates lost 2-1 to Gabonese side Mbilinga in the quarterfinals of the 1995 Champions Cup before claiming a 3-0 home win in the return.
And Sundowns lost 1-0 to Zimbabwean side Chicken Inn in the preliminary round of this year’s Champions League, before winning the second leg 2-0 to take the aggregate victory.
Ibenge stated before the first leg that his side had nothing to fear from facing Pitso Mosimane’s men.
“They will have 11 players on the field, the same as us. I’m not afraid of this club,” he said.
Vita Club were runners up in the Champions League two seasons ago when they lost on away goals to Algerian side E S Setif after a 3-3 draw on aggregate.
Compatriots T P Mazembe lifted the trophy last season, while the national team, of which Ibenge is also coach, claimed the African Nations Championship in Rwanda earlier this year.
That followed a bronze-medal finish for the Congolese at the African Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea in 2015, a further sign that the country is regaining former glory as one of the emerging powers of the African game.