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Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane continued to use his media opportunities to apply pressure on Mamelodi Sundowns ahead of the CAF Champions League quarter final second leg.
The 56-year-old claims that Masandawana are clear "favourites" to win the prestigious African club tournament despite his Red Devil charges holding a two-goal aggregate lead over the South African giants.
The two sides squared off in Cairo last week, with the home side recording a 2-0 first leg win over the Tshwane outfit, courtesy of goals from Taher Mohamed and Salah Mohsen.
On Saturday, Mosimane returns to South Africa for the second leg and says that his former side plays "pretty football", which he believes the reason they are favourites to advance.
"They are favourites to win the Champions League because of the way they play; it was difficult for us in the second half, but we needed patience and play smart; if you're too emotional playing at home, they will hurt you," Mosimane said as quoted by KickOff.
"Yes [Mohamed] El Shenaway made one of the biggest saves, but that's part of football. We know we have a lot of mistakes; I know I was also frustrated, but you must know, they play differently from the way I used to make them play.
"They play pretty football that beautiful to watch, but football is about results, it's about the goals, we got the goals, and that's what we needed, to go through [to the semi-finals] you need to score goals."
Mosimane added: "I'll never ever say we're qualified [already], I'm a professional in my space, and I'm never going to get excited, I've been around for 20 years. I have seen the biggest turnarounds.
"I've seen Liverpool losing to Barcelona and then winning the Champions League, never ever, we are professionals. If we lose, we lose because of mistakes and not because of attitude, not in my space."
After the win last week against the Brazilians, Mosimane took a swipe at Sundowns' co-coach Rhulani Mokwena, Mosimane's former assistant, for his comments leading up to the first leg.
Mokwena gave a detailed account of Al Ahly's star players to the media before saying that the Red Devils would want to avoid Sundowns just as much as the Brazilians would want to avoid the Egyptians ahead of the quarter draw.
"There has been a lot spoken about me the whole week and I kept quiet," Mosimane said. "I had to focus here because I had a big game.
"Sometimes us coaches can get excited and try to dismantle the opponents and I could see that my players were dismantled by the coaches of Sundowns so I didn't need to do that because I have big respect for Sundowns.
"There was a report that Sundowns does not need to have sleepless nights about Al-Ahly. Well, I had sleepless nights about Sundowns because I’ve worn the jersey and given my heart and soul for the club and I watched seven games of Sundowns and kept quiet and focused.
"God helped us with the result. This tie still has a heartbeat and Sundowns can turn around this thing. I have big respect for the players and the supporters of Sundowns."
The much-anticipated encounter will kick-off is at 15:00 at Lucas Moripe Stadium.
