Following their 4-0 win over Richards Bay in the Nedbank Cup, Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi issued a warning to their opponents.
Sundowns have a domestic match against Chippa United before starting their Champions League group stage play next week.
Mamelodi Sundowns are gearing up for a busy schedule.
With a trip to Sudan on the horizon before welcoming Pitso Mosimane back to Pretoria, February is going to be a difficult month.
Sundowns are well aware that they face an incredible workload. However, they were delighted to start with a clinical win over a tricky opponent.
He told SuperSport TV: “But at least we’re saying minus one now, it was difficult when it was a lot. Now we’re saying 27 minus, so we have 26, maybe in the next nine days we have another three matches,”.
“So we understand what we’re in for. We have already played 30 matches by the way. Maybe 31 with this one in three months. So the next three months we’re expected to play the next 26 if we were to go to all finals.
“We’re ready for that and we know what’s expected of us.”
Impressive squad gets stronger
The Mamelodi Sundowns coach reserved special praise for Surprise Ralani, who scored on his debut for Kabo Yellow.
“We know what he [Ralani] can offer, we told people what he’s capable of, the quality that he has is unmatched sometimes, technically very good, makes very few mistakes tactically and understands the game very well,” he added.
“He fits into our style of play because the position that he plays for us is the same position that ‘Mshishi’ [Themba Zwane] plays, it’s the same position as [Thabiso] Kutumela plays, it’s the same position that Neo [Maema] plays.
“And Cape Town City are not playing away from us a lot. They are playing almost the same style of football that we do and he understands what we expect from him.
“I still believe today he could have scored two if he took an extra touch on the chance that he took over the bar.
“We’re happy he smashed the second one, which gave him a little bit more confidence, maybe trust from the supporters and everyone around him.
“Because we believed in him. I must also commend all the coaches for believing in what we’re trying to do because credit must go to coach Rhulani [Mokoena] because we were in the Compact [Cup], Steve [Komphela] had to go home because he was bereaved.
“And he [Mokoena] remained behind, trained the team alone and worked with this group, he really did a good work, we must commend his work.”