7 months ago
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21 September 2024 - 11:15
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi.
Image: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)
As they prepare to seal a place in the group stages for another season, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqba Mngqithi has admitted it will be failure if they don’t go all the way to lift the Champions League.
The Brazilians take on Eswatini minnows Mbabane Swallows in the second leg of their Champions League final preliminary stage at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday enjoying a healthy 4-0 lead.
“Yes, it will be a failure if we do not achieve it [win the Champions League] because that’s what we have been trying to fight for. We have failed so many times, but sometimes failures are lessons and maybe lessons will pay off one day,” he said.
Mngqithi explained why it's important for him and Sundowns to win the Champions League for the second time.
“When I started coaching, I always wanted to win from an early age. I have always wanted to win something to replicate my name as much as I can in many things. I am the fortunate one who has coached in almost all the divisions of South African football where I have won something.
“When I got to Sundowns, I wanted to be part of a team that can win the league championship and I have been fortunate to be part of a team that has won nine league titles.
“Once I won one championship, it moved to the Champions League to say I must win at least one. Fortunately we managed to win it in 2016 but if I were to tell you what is my biggest ambition as a coach, it will be to win the Champions League.
“I wouldn’t mind anything else, I know the championship is the gateway to the Champions League but as a person I will give everything I have to make sure that I win the Champions League.”
The Brazilians have bolstered their squad with players like Arthur Sales, Iqraam Rayners, Kobamelo Kodisang, Kegan Johannes and Asekho Tiwani and Mngqithi says they have a chance of going all the way.
“I am very optimistic that we have a realistic chance of winning the Champions League. We just have to keep our feet on the ground and understand the dynamics and challenges of all these different profiles of matches.
“I think that’s were we let it lose sometimes because most teams in the Champions League are going to be sitting back at home and you probably have a chance to win away from home.
“Opponents are trying to do what we normally do at home and probably that is the reason we even chose a preparation phase that made us play more against teams that were not playing low blocks but teams that were coming at us.
“The plan was to try to make sure that we prepare for ourselves for that stage where there is no respect because respect is what we are getting in almost every second or third match or even every match in the PSL.
“In the Champions League once you get into the group stages, there are defenders that are not used to defend that much because they are always possession based because opponents are always coming on a counter.
“You never really get the preparation to deal with opponents that will come at us but preseason went very well and we did well against those teams that were coming at us and showed us no respect.
“That was a perfect dress rehearsal of what we are going to see in the Champions League, especially during the later stages of the tournament. It was a big compromise because we knew the first games of the league season we were going to play against low blocks.
“But we had to take the direction to say what are we preparing for. The Champions League, the African Football League (AFL) and Fifa Club World Cup were strongest in our minds when we made the decision to choose the opponents that we chose.
“Not opponents that we were going to dominate but opponents that we really had to push against them.”
