After their exit from the continent, Sundowns switch their attention back to the domestic scene as they chase an historic fourth PSL title.
A win over SuperSport United on Wednesday would see the Brazilians crowned champions but coach Manqoba Mngqithi is refusing to tag this game a ‘title decider’, to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on his players.
Victory for Masandawana will see them with a 10-point lead at the top of the table, as they will be on top of the standings and they will be confirmed as champions with three games to spare.
It will also be the first time any side in PSL history will claim four consecutive titles and it would at least serve as consolation for Sundowns who were knocked out of the CAF Champions League by Al Ahly over the weekend.
“The focus is not on our next assignment which is playing against SuperSport United and you could see from training that the intensity was good,” Mngqithi told Sundowns’ media.
“Everybody is looking forward to giving this match a fight. We know Sundowns do not want to lose or not to win for two matches in a row. So we have a responsibility to try and come back as quickly as possible.
“So all our attention is trying to make sure that we achieve our desired target in the last four matches and it just happens that SuperSport can decide the championship.
“But the intention is to try and get the number of points we have targeted and as it is now we are short of nine points in the cycle and it will be nice if we can get 12.
“That is basically what we are looking for. We are not putting a lot of pressure on the players to look at this game as a title decider because we still want them to give the same energy even in the next three matches.”
The Tshwane giants go into Wednesday’s match with a record of three successive league wins and the aim now is to gather as much points as possible before the end of the season.
“For us it is always important to focus on our process and according to our process, this is the second match of the last cycle of five games and we have won the first one,” Mngqithi continued.
“It is very important to win every match we play and try to achieve our targets. That is for the legacy of the players to know how they won the league and how much of a fight it was.”