Staff Reporter.
Chilean Marcelo Allende opened the scoring as Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa won 2-0 at Petro Luanda of Angola on Saturday in an African Football League (AFL) quarterfinal first leg.
Allende struck on 67 minutes and substitute Thapelo Maseko netted after 80 minutes at the Estadio 11 de Novembre in Luanda.
Argentine Junior Mendieta passed for Allende to fire past goalkeeper Hugo Marques from close range and end the stalemate.
Maseko had been on the pitch just one minute when he sprang an offside trap, rounded Marques and scored from a tight angle.
The momentum swung toward the South African visitors in the second half after Petro controlled the opening 45 minutes.
Deivi ‘Gilberto’ Vieira missed a great chance to put the home side ahead three minutes before halftime when his weakly struck penalty was blocked by goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
The clubs meet again, in Pretoria on Tuesday, with Sundowns virtually assured of advancing to the semifinals of the new competition, where they will most likely face Al Ahly of Egypt.
Record 11-time African champions Ahly held Simba of Tanzania to a 2-2 draw in Dar es Salaam on Friday in the opening first leg after squandering several scoring opportunities.
The other two first legs are set for Sunday with TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo playing Esperance of Tunisia before Enyimba of Nigeria meet Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.
The AFL underwent a name change several months ago from CAF Africa Super League amid fears the original title might be linked with the failed 2021 attempt to form a European Super League.
Initially, a 24-club, 197-fixture tournament culminating in a single-match final, it was reduced to eight teams with two-leg quarterfinals, semifinals and final due to limited sponsorship.
Prize money has been drastically reduced with the winners set to pocket four million dollars – $7.5 mn less than initially planned.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena said, “the AFL tie is not about revenge, I never use the word revenge and never does my heart have those types of intentions.”
“My message to the players was to remind them about a match we played two or three days ago in a cup game in South Africa. At halftime we were 2-0 down and we came back in the second half to make it 2-2,” Mokwena told the Angolan media in his post-match press conference on Saturday.
“This is half time, there is still 90 minutes to be played, so it is important for us to stay humble, stay focused and respect our opponent because of the quality that they have and go out there and play the game not the scoreline.”
Mokwena said Sundowns beat a well put together team.
“We beat a good side with good organisational forms, difficult to deal with the overloads they create. I gave you the [Petro’s] line-up in the prematch press conference but we only had nine out of the 11 because one of the players was injured and one started on the bench.