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Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane says his time as Bafana Bafana coach has proved to be perfect preparation for his success at club level in Africa.
Mosimane guided Sundowns to the prestigious CAF Champions League trophy last year, and his side are currently well-placed in the quarter-finals of the same competition in 2017, having beaten Wydad Casablanca 1-0 at home in the first leg.
Mosimane is, however, wary of the second leg, which takes place in Morocco on Saturday night, although he feels that his time as a Bafana Bafana assistant and head coach has stood him in good stead for the challenges of the continent.
"I was with the South African Football Association for five years (coaching Bafana Bafana) and I learnt a lot about international football‚ and that helps us here (at Sundowns) now‚" he told the Sowetan.
"And that is why I left SuperSport United to join Bafana because I needed to understand international football."
Mosimane spoke in particular of the challenges teams face in North Africa.
"You go to Setif (Algerian side ES Setif) and they intimidate you. They burn things and they come inside the pitch. It is unbelievable.
"Zamalek - you saw the bottles they threw at us in Egypt. Their technical team was attacking us.
"You must frustrate them. You must understand the North Africans. I know it very well and that is one part of the continent I wanted to know and understand very well.
"It is the culture‚ it is the mentality‚ it is the belief - it is North Africans. They blow their fuse and they've got a short fuse.
"But my boys know this thing. We went to Setif‚ we went to Zamalek‚ we've been to Esperance (Tunisia) and now we are going to these ones (Wydad) in the quarterfinal second leg on Saturday."
