This is serious cash. Mamelodi Sundowns will become R1 billion richer despite losing to Esperance in the CAF Champions League semifinals at Loftus Versfeld in Tshwane on Friday night.
MAMELODI SUNDOWNS LOSE TO ESPERANCE IN THE CAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Friday night was a painful evening for Kabo Yellow supporters. The 2016 CAF Champions League winners failed in another dream to win the second title. Tunisia’s Esperance completed a 2-0 aggregate win after a 1-0 win in the semifinal second leg last night. Sundowns completely dominated the game in both boxes, missed a string of chances before Esperance’s Read Bouchniba smashed home a killer winner on 57 minutes.
Esperance coach Miguel Cardoso described the win as one of the best of his career.
“It was rather difficult to prepare this game, probably the most difficult game I ever played, because Sundowns is an unbelievable team,” Cardoso said via iDiskiTimes.
“To compete in the right way, we had to use a tactical approach that would allow us to close as much as possible the spaces, the individual quality, the tactical variance that we could see on the pitch.
“Yesterday, I had a meeting a 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we almost had no time to practice between the two games, with the sleep and we didn’t know if someone was watching our training, so we didn’t make any big tactical work.
“But we had a couple of meetings scheduled, and we had a meeting at 2 o’clock and I cancelled it. I was not ready to tell the players how we should start the game – I had to sit with some of them and discuss,” Cardoso concluded.
The result took Esperance to the final to meet Egyptian powerhouse Al Ahly. Meanwhile, Sundowns received some very good news.
R1 BILLION FOR FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP QUALIFICATION
Having lost in the semifinals while Congolese giants TP Mazembe also lost massively to Ahly by 4-0, Sundowns earned enough points to qualify for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States of America in June 2025.
According to One Football, qualification will guarantee a payment of €50 million (R1 billion). “The total prize money is around €2.5bn and an initial €2bn will be distributed among the 32 teams that book their plane tickets to the USA. Qualification, therefore, brings €50m as a minimum, while there will be other results-based bonuses and the winner will receive around €100m,” the outlet reported.
Meanwhile, Sundowns will switch focus to the DStv Premiership and Nedbank Cup. The champions are leading the table with 13 points and two games in hand. They will also visit Stellenbosch FC for the Nedbank Cup semifinals in the Western Cape on Sunday 5 May.
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