Mukoko’s Lupopo given NO CHANCE against Sundowns – ‘They aren’t a team to match Masandawana’

Mamelodi Sundowns are set to play the Democratic Republic of Congo outfit St Eloi Lupopo on Saturday in Group C fixture to be staged at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

The defending Premier Soccer League champions Masandawana hope to get a win which will give them a chance to seamlessly get into the knockout phase. The Chaminots chase victory, not only to stand an opportunity to advance, but to prove their doubters that they deserve to be dining with the big teams in the continent.

Lupopo controversially edged out Orlando Pirates in the final preliminary stage which has led to a number of sanctions including the two-match suspension of Dieumerci Mukoko who was lucky to escape a red card at the Orlando Stadium.

Ahead of the fixture, Sundowns legend Teko Modise has placed his former team above Lupopo, insisting they will easily get past their opponent.

Lupopo will try to play dirty, but…

“Just to put context to this for the fans, we have also seen how they played against Orlando Pirates, how dirty they are. It will require us to play differently, it will require a different mindset,” he told the Pitchside Podcast.

“When we play at home, they are not a team to match us. From a football [perspective], they won’t match us at all, even if we play with 40% they won’t match us.

“But the problem is when they play at home themselves, they will try to play dirty, they will try to play off the park. We have seen the incidents, especially with no VAR, we have seen their off-the-ball incidents.

“It’s things we need to be careful of because we need our star players to still be able to perform well. They know who the star players are for Mamelodi Sundowns, and they will try to play dirty on them,” Modise concluded.