Wydad coach points out what gave them the edge over Sundowns

Wydad Casablanca head coach Sven Vandenbroeck has pointed out what gave his side the edge over Mamelodi Sundowns.

Wydad knocked Sundowns out of the CAF Champions League semi-final at Loftus Versfeld Stadium after playing to a 2-2 draw on Saturday, 20th of May.

The two sides played to a goalless draw in the first leg of the semi-final at Stade Mohammed V last Saturday.

Having kept a cleansheet in their home match, the Moroccan giants booked their spot in the Champions League final with the away-goal rule advantage.

Meanwhile, Sundowns once again fell short in the knockout stages. The Brazilians were knocked in the quarter-final stage of the competition last season by Pedro de Luanda.

Sundowns were favorites to win the tournament after beating Egyptian giants Al Ahly 5-2 in the group stages.

WYDAD COACH SVEN VANDENBROECK ON HOW THEY BEAT MAMELODI SUNDOWNS

“I came in two weeks ago, and when I spoke to the people in the club, there was lot of negativity about this one does this, that one does this,” said Vandenbroeck.

“But they[players] reunited again and you can see in these two games[against Sundowns] that we were a team on the pitch.

“In the first leg they surprised me because I expected a little bit more quality because honestly I gave Sundowns a chance to go through more than us but as I said, experience won over quality.

“We had advantage in the air, I think we scored two headers, one on the cross and one on the setpiece. It was also the idea to score on setpieces in the first leg.

“If we can do it away it’s even better, so we knew that we have an advantage in the air and I think we succeeded in exploiting them,” the coach added.

Wydad will face Al Ahly in the two-legged CAF Champions League final with first leg playing on 4th of June while second-leg will take place on the 11th of June.

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