Sundowns can beat As Vita away, says Dolly

MAMELODI Sundowns winger Keagan Dolly says the team have enough quality to beat As Vita away from home in their Caf Champions League clash on Sunday (4.30pm).

Sundowns face As Vita in the first leg of the second round and the crunch match will be played at Stade Tata-Raphael stadium in Kinshasa.

The Brazilians will be without Khama Billiat and Soumahoro Bangaly, who are both suspended for accumulating two yellow cards each.

Despite Billiat’s absence, Dolly says he believes Sundowns still have enough quality to win.

“We will miss Khama because he is one of the best here at Sundowns,” he said.

“In fact, he’s been amazing in the league this season.

“It’s been amazing to play with him . . . I’ve known him from our Ajax [Cape Town] days and we’ve got that understanding,” Dolly, 23, said.

“But with the quality we have at Sundowns, anyone can walk into his place and do just as well as he’s been doing. So I think we have the quality to go and get the result in Kinshasa.”

He said Sundowns’ opponents in the last round, Congo Brazzaville’s AC Leopards, had been a good test and had prepared Sundowns for As Vita.

“We are prepared. We showed when we went to Congo Brazzaville [to play AC Leopards] that we have a good team and we got the result. We will stick to what we are good at and try to grind out the result.”

Sundowns and As Vita have previously met in Caf competitions. The first time was also in the second round in 1994 when the Caf Champions League was still known as the African Champions League. As Vita won the first leg 2-1 and Sundowns bounced back to win 3-2 at home. And with the score 4-4 on aggregate, As Vita advanced to the next stage on the awaygoals rule.

The two teams met again in the 2009 Caf Confederation Cup and again, it was in the second round.

As Vita beat Sundowns 3-2 on aggregate to reach the next round.