The job is not done yet‚ Arendse warns Sundowns in Egypt

Mamelodi Sundowns defender Wayne Arendse has urged his teammates to remain vigilant against Al Ahly in the second leg of their crunch Caf Champions League‚ quarterfinal clash at the Borg El Arab Stadium in Alexandria on Saturday.

The Brazilians have travelled to North Africa with a 5-0 lead from the first leg in Pretoria last weekend but Arendse said the job is only half done‚ and a place in the semifinal has not been guaranteed despite their commanding advantage.

“The job is only half done‚ we have to finish it off in Egypt‚” said Arendse who scored the second goal in the win at Lucas Moripe Stadium as they stepped up their preparations for the match in Alexandria.

The experienced Arendse said to be able to progress to the next round of the competition Sundowns must stick to their processes‚ not be under any pressure from an expected hostile crowd of in the 86‚000-seater Borg El Arab‚ and score at least one goal.

“We should foolishly go all out attack in the second leg but the 5-0 scoreline does not mean we must go there to defend‚” he said.

“We should still play our normal game and play positive football. It’s going to be tough but very interesting because I feel we could have scored more goals at home had we buried all our chances.

“What’s more important‚ though‚ is the fact that we created these chances and I believe we can still create more in Egypt‚ because it’s still crucial for us to score at least one goal away.”

Arendse added that their 5-0 win in the first leg was due to the extensive work that was done by the technical team under the leadership of Pitso Mosmane as they watched eight games of Al Ahly prior to the match.

“When we saw that we drew Al Ahly in the quarterfinals‚ we all knew that it was going to be a tough game.

“We had to start right away and go through eight of their games and I feel the technical team really did a lot of work on the opposition and deserve all of the credit that’s coming their way.

“We took the game to them and that was the plan we worked on. During our preparations the technical team drummed it into our heads the importance of keeping a clean sheet and maintaining ball possession‚ especially playing the first match at home.”