Pitso playing games with Leopards

Perhaps Pitso Mosimane was playing mind games when he suggested that it is difficult to travel to the Thohoyandou Stadium to face Black Leopards, because over the years, Sundowns have generally managed to beat the Venda-based side, both home and away.

The duo will square off in the Limpopo Province tonight and with Leopards coming off the back of a first win under new coach Luc Eymael, “Jingles” anticipates a tough encounter.

“It is difficult to go there, and a new team with a new coach is never normal, it is either the performance goes lower or it goes higher. Normally the performance goes up because the players want to impress the new coach and the new coach is tough. Everybody who was not getting a chance will say let’s do well so we can impress him. You can imagine what is happening there, I don’t think they even had a day off (since Eymael took over) they are training,” said Mosimane.

The Sundowns coach said fans should not expect to see striker Mauricio Affonso starting against Leopards as he is still battling with match fitness.

“Affonso is not ready. If he was ready he would have helped us against SuperSport with aerial balls and all that. But that is gone now, we have other things to achieve. He does not feel any pain in his ankle. For me that is big.” he said.

Leopards’ assistant coach Morgan Shivambu, meanwhile, said the team is responding well to Eymael’s philosophy – Shivambu was the one who sat on the bench in Leopards’ 1-0 win over Phunya Sele Sele as Eymael was waiting for his work permit.

“The players tried their best to adapt to his formation. If we can check, that is why most of our players were cramping. He wants a team that is aggressive going forward trying to press. I think once they adapt to that thing, we are going to kill teams,” said Shivambu.