Kenyan international Brain Mandela ensured a clean sheet for Mamelodi Sundowns in the barren draw against Sudanese giants Al Merreikh in the CAF Champions League and drew praise from coach Rulani Mokwena.The former Tusker FC defender has played in every single minute of the Champions League this season for Sundowns after lasting the entire 90 in the win over another Sudanese side Al-Hilal Omdurman.A hotly-contested encounter comes to a close in Cairo! The Brazilians keep a clean sheet and secure a point! 👆Al Merrikh 0️⃣➖0️⃣ Mamelodi Sundowns#Sundowns #DownsLive #TotalEnergiesCAFCL pic.twitter.com/RmEgXC00JE— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) February 19, 2022 Rulani heaped praise on Mandela after his goal-line clearance saw Sundowns avoid what would have been an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Sudanese side.“I suppose it was a game of 2 halves, the first half we played exceptionally well, extremely dominant and created a lot of chances and had six big chances.[The opposition] created opportunities from our carelessness from the ball, and they caught us on the counter-attack, the one that Brian Onyango cleared off the line was a big chance but it came from our situation in having a set-piece and turning over the ball,” said Rulani.After seeing limited game time since sealing the move to Sundowns back in October 2020, Mandela has started nailing down regular game time clocking 90 minutes in the past four games.After two matches, Sundowns sit at the summit of Group A with four points but will face reigning African champions Al Ahly in their next clash and opened up on the dynamics of the group.The referee brings the first half to a close! Plenty of positives to take into the second half! 👆Al Merrikh 0️⃣➖0️⃣ Mamelodi Sundowns #Sundowns #DownsLive #TotalEnergiesCAFCL pic.twitter.com/dHLXwPtUpl— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) February 19, 2022 “We will have to fight for the other points from Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, and we’ve gotta give them the same amount of respect that you would give in terms of the preparations and attention to detail that you would give to Al-Ahly. Everyone was disappointed when we only beat Al-Hilal 1-0, but if you look at the Al-Ahly game against Al-Hilal, when they draw you realize how important it was to win that match and we cannot be blinded by playing the name instead of playing the matches,” added Rulani.
