Mngqithi: Celtic left gaping wound in MTN8

Manqoba Mngqithi (right) and company are still bleeding from the wound left by Bloemfontein Celtic, who knocked them out of the MTN8 earlier this season, as Sundowns had hoped that would be their year to win the lucrative title that has evaded them for close to a decade-anda-half.

In what could easily be seen as a revenge tie, Downs will be hosting Phunya Sele Sele in the DStv Premiership today at 5pm. While Sundowns are enjoying a decent run of form as they sit at the summit of the log, the same cannot be said about John Maduka’s men, who, in the last six games, have drawn three and lost three.

“Celtic is a hard-running team, they are the ones that took us out of the MTN8 and we know the quality that they have in their attack,” said Mngqithi.

“We want to bag maximum points but we know it is not going to be easy, they have not been doing exceptionally well of late and are a little bit dangerous when they are like that. You would hope they come with a little bit of momentum because when they have been struggling, they have tended to cause problems against bigger teams,” he added.

Sundowns are still flirting with the possibility of going the whole season unbeaten as they have managed to navigate the first 11 games without a dent, winning the Q-Innovation’s first quarter award after amassing 18 points.

However, the idea of being invincible is not one which Mngqithi is obsessed about.

“To be honest, it is not what we are looking for, we always focus on each game that comes our way and we always have a proper defensive strategy and a good offensive strategy... baselines as to what we want to achieve when in possession and out of possession.

“Our players have been adapting a lot and we have hardly been caught on counter-attacks. We are excited with how we have been fighting, all working really hard and getting the balance right.”