Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns.
According to former AS FAR assistant coach Jamil Benouahi, South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns have all the ingredients required to be crowned the CAF Champions League winners at the end of the season.
The Brazilians are currently in the round of 16 of the competition and they have been drawn to face Espérance of Tunisia. Sundowns, winners in 2016, will be aiming to break the semifinal barrier having failed to progress beyond that stage since their title win.
The winner of the clash between Sundowns and Esperance will face either Africa champions Al Ahly or Al Hilal. Despite facing the huge test of North Africans giants, Benouahi believes that Sundowns will go all the way and could face rivals Orlando Pirates in the final.
“I still believe, if you take the competition right now, I'm sure and I believe wholeheartedly that Sundowns have the best team today – well balanced, very confident, they're playing very well and scoring lots of goals, and they have better balance than before, for sure,” said Benouahi as quoted by SABC Sports.
“The only thing, when you talk about Espérance de Tunis and Al Ahly Egypt, it's not about football only – it's all their behaviours, their tricks and things, it's not only about football. If it's only about football, for sure, for me the best team is Sundowns.”
With Pirates facing MC Alger of Algeria in the same stage, Benouahi is not ruling out a final involving the South African giants. “Pirates, for sure, of course, because this team is not that easy, but the thing is that all the teams have the same profile, they're mostly new to the competition,” he explained.
“Alger, it's going to be a tough game in Algeria at the 5 July Stadium, but for sure the rest are good, and even in the league this season, as you can see, Pirates is very close to Sundowns. So, for sure, I can go with Pirates vs Sundowns [final], but Sundowns has this – it's very tough.”
All quarter-final matches will be played over two legs, with the first leg scheduled for 1 April and the return leg a week later on 8 April. The semi-finals will follow a similar format, with the winners advancing to the prestigious final in June.
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