Downs know their way in the North

Brazilians take their first leg 1-0 win to Morocco

With his team adequately battle-tested against African opposition, coach

Pitso Mosimane feels Mamelodi Sundowns are now immune to intimidation from teams north of the Sahel.

The Brazilians will take a 1-0 advantage into their CAF Champions League quarterfinal second leg clash against Wydad Casablanca at the weekend.

The South African heavyweights will travel away to face the Moroccan giants at the Stade Mohammed on Saturday (10pm SA time).

The CAF Champions League holders won at home courtesy of a Yannick

Zakri strike in the first leg at the

Lucas Moripe

Stadium at the weekend.

Downs have in the past two seasons held their own against some of the biggest clubs from the Sahara, including ES Setif, Esperance and Zamalek.

“They are north Africans, they have short fuse and my boys know. It’s going to be a big fight there,” Mosimane said. “We’ve been through this. We have a lot of international players. We have the experience, we are not going to be intimidated. “It’s a different mentality as you can see they came to our bench. It’s not that they are bad it’s their culture and way of thinking.” Mosimane has put his money where his mouth is after securing visas and booking accommodation in advance with the expectation that his team will march on to the last four.

The Brazilians are confident they will win the second leg and go on to face USM Alger whom they anticipate to beat Clube Ferroviario Beira of Mozambique and, by so doing, set up a first leg semifinal clash next Friday.

The former Bafana Bafana mentor was also pleased that his team did not concede an away goal against Wydad. “What we prayed for we got. I would have loved to have the second one, and if you want to be in the semifinal no one will give it to you.”