Jose Ali Meza and Pitso Mosimane Mamelodi Sundowns October 27

How Mamelodi Sundowns stopped Wydad Casablanca - Mosimane

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has hailed his tactics as having worked to force a goalless draw against Wydad Casablanca on Saturday.

The 2016 African champions drew 0-0 with Wydad on the backdrop of four defeats from their previous visits to Casablanca.

They are now two points clear at the top of Group C where USM Alger are second.

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While saying he would have preferred a scoring draw, Mosimane feels he plotted successfully.

“The game came out the way we expected‚ a game between Wydad and Sundowns is always like this. If it was a draw I would prefer 1-1 or 2-2 than 0-0‚ because a beautiful game like this must have goals,” Mosimane was quoted as saying by Times Live.

“We started better and it was a game of two halves. First half we took it. The last 15-20 minutes they put a lot of pressure on us. But we defended very clean and did not make mistakes‚ normally we make mistakes.”

Mosimane said he got his tactics correct by shutting down Wydad’s wings, therefore shutting down the supply to the strikers.

“I am happy we dealt very well with the number nine [El Kaabi]‚ he is a very good player‚ powerful‚ and we gave him no chance to face the goals‚ he was only facing his own goal,” said Mosimane.

“We also know the right-winger [Badi Aouk] always likes to go down the line to cross‚ so we denied him the space.

"Same as [Ismail] El Haddad‚ he likes to go down with the [left] wing. If you deal with the wingers then the number nine does not get the ball.

“Everything happened as we expected‚ the only time we could have problems is from free-kicks and corner-kicks‚ and we were good from those.

“We tried to go with speed behind and Wydad was pulling back because we were fast‚ but that gave us space in the midfield to play and we controlled the game there.

“If we took the chance we had in the first half with the player one-on-one with the goalkeeper‚ it could have been different."

Sundowns will again be on the road in their next Caf Champions League campaign with a visit to USM Alger two days after Christmas Day.

Wydad will host Petro Atletico.

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