Anthony Laffor of Mamelodi Sundowns during the Absa Premiership 2018/19 match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Maritzburg United at Loftus Versveld Stadium, Pretoria on 16 January 2019 ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
by
Staff Reporter
Wednesday Jan 30, 2019. 16:00
Mamelodi Sundowns will be desperate to return to winning ways when they welcome ASEC Mimosas to Loftus Stadium for a 2019 Caf Champions League group stage fixture in Tshwane on Friday evening.
Kick-off is at 21h00 CAT.
The Brazilians head into the clash on the back of successive defeats, having lost to Chippa United and AmaZulu in the Nedbank Cup and Absa Premiership respectively.
Defeat at home to Usuthu on Tuesday evening was the club's first loss in league action for 381 days.
Sundowns returned to winning ways in the Caf Champions League with a 2-1 win over Wydad Casablanca last time out, thanks to a brace from Themba Zwane. The result followed defeat by the same scoreline away to Lobi Stars in their Group A opener.
ASEC also moved up to three points in the group with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Lobi Stars in Abidjan last time out. Herve Diomande scored the only goal of the game for the Ivorian giants who bounced back to winning ways following a 5-2 loss away to Wydad.
Mosimane predicts a physical tussle against the West Africans, but is quietly confident his team can record consecutive home wins.
"ASEC will be difficult hey, we need to break their defence. We will have to be strong and ready to penetrate a reinforced defence and control the counter-attack, and set-pieces," Mosimane said. "The Ivorians, West Africans are big boys so we will have to work around the clock.
"The boys are suffering a bit with fatigue, but we have been through this before and we know how to deal with it. ASEC will give us a good match," he concluded.
Referee Sadok Selmi of Tunisia will take charge of the clash in the South African capital.
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