Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane believes the 11-1 drubbing they inflicted on Cote d’Or will send a strong message to the teams who will visit them at Lucas Moripe Stadium in the group stage of the CAF Champions League.
The Brazilians cruised to the group stage after thumping the Seychelles side 16-1 on aggregate.
Mosimane had spoken about the need for more goals on Friday night in the second leg. He put out a strong XI, resting only Dennis Onyango, Mosa Lebusa and Tebogo Langerman to ensure a professional performance - and goals.
“It’s important to score the goals,” Mosimane said. “It’s important that the other people must understand that when they come here, there are a lot of goals in the CAF Champions League. We score more goals here in CAF than the league.
“We played the Congolese team here and we scored four goals. It’s good. They must know that it’s a fortress here. It’s important!”
What was particularly impressive about the Sundowns’ victory was how professionally they played. They were ruthless, efficient and also respectful of their opponents.
“I don’t like showboating,” Mosimane said. “I don’t like us to do it, and that’s why, when the opposition does it, I always talk about it. Sometimes when I talk about it, people say, ‘You don’t like to give credit to the other people when you lose’.
“Okay, it’s up to the team and the personality of the coach. If you want to showboat, you can do it. We could have easily showboated in this match but I believe that setting the records and showing integrity for the club is much bigger than showboating.
“Football is about goals, if Manchester City can score eight goals against an English Premier League club, why can’t we score 11 goals against a team we think is not strong enough to play against us?
“But we aren’t getting carried away because we were stronger than them.”
Sundowns booked their place in the group stage on Friday along with the reigning African champions Esperance and Angola’s Petro de Luanda. Five more teams earned places in the group stage yesterday and the final seven will do so today.
The draw to determine which group Sundowns will be in will be conducted on October 9.
Regardless of who they face, there will be a number of familiar faces for Sundowns now that they have established themselves as a powerhouse on the continent, reaching the group stage for the fifth successive time.
“There are a number of strong teams,” Mosimane said. “The Angolans qualified against KCCA (Kampala Capital City Authority), I never thought that they would qualify against KCCA because they are a good team.
“There are about seven or eight teams that are going to be competitive. We are going for it! It’s going to be a big one.
“There will probably be two teams from Egypt, two from Morocco, two from Tunisia and maybe one from Algeria. Don’t forget that the guys from Sudan are strong.
“We will probably also get a team from West Africa. It’s going to be more difficult this year; there are a lot of big boys this year.”