Mamelodi Sundowns must follow in the footsteps of the class of 2016 in the Champions League final

Mamelodi Sundowns have to try to follow the model of the 2016 CAF Champions League winning season when they face Pyramids in the final this campaign.

Sundowns will host Pyramids in the continental showpiece final first leg at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday before visiting the Pharaohs on June 1.

This will be the second final for Sundowns since 2016, while Pyramids are making only their first showdown on the continent. And so given the gulf in experience, Sundowns are tipped to put that into good use and become only the first SA based team to win the continental crown twice.

Coach Miguel Cardoso will also be eager to make up for lost time as he lost last season’s final with Tunisian giants Esperance to outgoing champions A Ahly.

Cardoso is now more experienced than he was last season and should have a few tricks up his sleeve to ensure that they beat Pyramids over the two legs. But there’d be no better model for him and his troops to try and copy than that of coach Pitso Mosimane eight years ago when they beat another Cairo based side, Zamalek, in the final.

Mosimane and his troops beat Zamalek 3-0 in the final first leg at Loftus courtesy of goals from Anthony Laffor, Teboho Langerman and an own goal from Islam Gamal.

That clinical performance worked out well for the Brazilians in the end as Zamalek 1-0 win at home was notwithstanding as the former won the contest 3-1.

Keeping a clean sheet and scoring goals in the first leg at home augurs well for teams on the continent as the away goal rule usually counts in their favour as well.

Sundowns have ample reason to believe that everything will be doable in Pretoria as they’ll not be short of supporters as the match-day tickets have already been sold-out.

The Ka BoYellow Nation and neutrals by now seem to understand that when a local team does well on the continent that augurs well for Bafana Bafana as well.

Sundowns’ continental experience helped Bafana during the previous Afcon as Hugo Broos mostly used Sundowns’ players en route to their third-place finish. The Brazilians, who were crowned local champions for a record-extending eighth time on Sunday, have every reason to want to win the African crown.

It would also serve as a huge inspiration ahead of their participation in the Club World Cup in the US next month.