Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso was a happy man after his side cruised past Remo Stars of Nigeria with an emphatic 5-1 win in the away first leg of the Caf Champions League preliminary game in Nigeria. Photo: Sipho Siso
A seemingly rejuvenated Mamelodi Sundowns is off to a five star start with five star goals in the Caf Champions League preliminary round match against Nigerian league champions Remo Stars at the MKO Abiola Sports Complex in Nigeria.
The Yellow Machine proved once again why they are called the powerhouse of African continental football when they put five goals past a hapless Stars side that only managed to score a late solitary goal against the dominance of the perennial winners of the South African Betway Premiership for the past eight years in a row.
The opening goal of the Yellow Machine came via the boot of maturing youngster Tashreeq Matthews as early as the 11th minute of the game when he drilled the ball into the back of the net despite a maze of Stars defenders.
The second goal in the 30th minute came from perennial goal poacher and Namibian international marksman Peter Shalulile, who received a pass with a Stars defender by his side but managed to outwit him to the ball and struck a thunderbolt that slid past an approaching Stars keeperAdebiyi Mercel Serge Obassa to rattle the back of the net while the third goal came from newly acquired Portuguese star Miguel Reisinho, making it his first goal under the colours of Sundowns – a side also known as the Brazilians by its avid fans for its team colours and style of play.
A fresh from the bench substitute Brazilian star Arthur ‘Umdayisi’ Sales scored a beauty with just hattrick of touches soon after coming into the field of play, and gave Sundowns a 4-0 lead in the one-sided game that only saw Stars making most runs in the first 10 minutes of play before sundowns settled down and started playing their shoe-shine and piano game they are so famous the world over, as also demonstrated in the recent Fifa Club World Cup in the United States.
Stars managed to pull one back late in the game from a powerful strike by Michael Okoro Ibe, that left Sundowns keeper Ronwen Williams bewildered as to what went past him. That was the one and only goal for Stars, a side that is coming down south for a second leg of the preliminaries, which will see the overall winner advancing to the group stages of the tournament.
Another new arrival at Sundowns and one of the later substitutes, Katlego Ntsabeleng, sealed the deal with a shot that beat Stars keeper, coming from a cross by another Sundowns substitute, Lebo Mothiba, and the final score was 5-1 in favour of the Yellow Machine.
Sundowns will be at home at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria next for the final leg which will determination who progresses to the next round of the group stages of the Caf Champions League, a feat that Mamelodi Sundowns has enjoyed for the past decade but has very little to show for it, as they have faltered when it mattered most more than three or some times.
The Brazilians are still in the hunt for the second Caf Star after winning the first one in 2016. Just the past champions league, they were beaten in the final by Egyptian maidens of the champions league, Pyramids FC, which yesterday [October 18] won the Caf Super Cup.
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