Rulani Mokwena reacts to Mamelodi Sundowns’ Champions League draw 

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena anticipates a tough battle against ‘familiar foes’ in the CAF Champions League group stages. 

Sundowns were drawn against Egyptian giants Al Ahly, Sudan side Al Hilal and Coton Sport of Cameroon in Group B.

The official draw took place on Monday afternoon in Cairo, Egypt. 

IN 2021, Sundowns were drawn alongside Al Ahly and Hilal and Al Merrikh. 

MAMELODI SUNDOWNS TARGET 

Mokwena insists Sundowns main target is to collect enough points and get out of the group.

“First thing is to recognise that there are a lot of difficult teams that have made it into the group stages of the Champions League and you can expect that,” said Mokwena. 

“The Champions League over the years has always become such a difficult competition for everybody regardless of who we have picked or we were pitted against in the group.

“It was always going to be very difficult and that is accepting that we have made and we have come to understand.

“There are huge resemblances with regard to familiarity from 2021. Again we travel to Al Ahly in Egypt and we had similar foes last season.

“We had a very interesting trip to Sudan which we again anticipate for this season and a difficult team with Al Hilal and some players which are very familiar like Gerald Phiri Jr,” he said. 

“There is an interesting trip to Coton Sport and one that we are looking forward to, to travel to Cameroon and see how far we can get into this group but the challenge for us is to get out of the group. That’s the number one goal.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CAF Champions League Group stage Fixtures 

𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗔

Wydad Athletic (Morocco), Atletico Petroleos (Angola), JS Kabylie (Algeria) , AS Vita Club (DRC) 

𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗕

Al Ahly SC (Egypt), 𝗠𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗱𝗶 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀, Al Hilal (Sudan), Coton Sport (Cameroon)

𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗖

Raja C.A (Morocco) , Horoya A.C (Guinea), Simba SC (Tanzania), Vipers SC (Uganda)

𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝗗

Espérance (Tunisia), Zamalek SC (Egypt), CR Belouizdad (Algeria), Al Merrikh (Sudan)

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