Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena is braced for a battle against a TP Mazembe side full of “complex personalities” when the teams clash in the CAF Champions League in Lubumbashi on Saturday.
Sundowns have two wins from two in Group B, but Mazembe have only picked up a pair of draws so far, a disappointing start to the pool campaign for the DR Congo giants.
Sundowns arrived early to acclimatise and get used to the conditions, and Mokwena says they have settled in well.
"They are an interesting side, a very good team. Defensively they are very strong. We have watched their last three matches, they played the derby [a 3-1 win vs Lubumbashi Sport], Al-Hilal [0-0 draw] ... from what we have seen it is a 4-4-1-1,” Mokwena says.
"But we still have to tactically activate ourselves and prepare for a team that has got very complex personalities, they are very aggressive.
“They push the wingers and full-backs very high, but they can also be very conservative and sit in a block and play on counter-attack. They have very fast players up front.
"It will be interesting to see what approach they adopt because they need the three points more than us.
"The travel was OK, pretty decent in fact. The pitch and environment in relation to the weather conditions suits us perfectly, it is overcast and a bit of rain. We were expecting extreme conditions with high heat.”
Victory for Sundowns would all but seal their place in the quarterfinals, though no South Africa side has ever won in Lubumbashi in seven previous attempts (D3 L4).
Sundowns played to a 0-0 draw in the pool stages of the Champions League in 2001, and then lost 3-1 in the second round in 2015. They also lost by the same scoreline in the pool stages of the CAF Confederation Cup in 2007.
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