Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi feels it would be ignorant to undermine any of the teams in the CAF Champions League group stages.
The South African champions have been drawn in group B alongside AS FAR and Raja CA [both from Morocco], as well as Maniema Union from DR Congo.
The 2016 Africa Club football champions will be looking for their second star after being knocked out in the semi-finals in the last two tournaments.
Only Maniema have not won the title in the group with FAR winning it once and Raja three times.
Mngqithi has warned against underestimating any opponent in their group.
“From where I am sitting, I just feel it would be ignorant of us to think AS FAR will be less difficult than Raja. I think both of them are on the rise and are doing very well,” he said.
WHY MAMELODI SUNDOWNS CAF CHAMPIONS GROUP IS A COMPLICATED ONE
“It will be very difficult to know who is going to be [tough] between Raja and AS FAR because AS FAR has been on the rise. They have done very well in the recent past. Raja was previously one of the dominant teams. They went out, and now they are back again at Wydad’s expense.
“It makes it very complicated, but looking at how Raja performed last season, I see that they did exceptionally well and broke a lot of records.”
Mnqithi has described Maniema, who are making it for the first time in the group stages, as a ‘banana skin’.
“It’s another banana skin that one. When we played them in 2021, they were a new team that nobody even knew about,” he said. We were told that it’s another team that was on the resurgence and the owners were very ambitious. Even when we played them, they were not an easy team to play against.
MANQOBA MNGQITHI FEELS ALL THE GROUPS PRESENT SOME SORT OF DIFFICULTY
“It could not have been any better to draw in these group stages. If you look at it very closely, the only new teams in the group stages would be Maniema. It’s a team that has not been there. Stade d’Abidjan it’s not a team that has been there for longer. Sagrada from Angola are the only team that you would say were the dark houses to come to the group stages.
“Generally, all these groups present a difficult [challenge] for anyone. But be that as it may, if you want to win it, you want to play these kinds of matches.”
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