Mothobi Mvala has openly acknowledged that Mamelodi Sundowns are fully aware of their ongoing struggle with conceding late goals—a recurring weakness they’ve identified as a concern ahead of their crucial second-leg showdown in the CAF Champions League final against Egypt’s Pyramids FC.
The continental showpiece hangs delicately in the balance following a 1-1 draw in the first leg played in Tshwane. Sundowns initially took the lead through a Lucas Ribeiro strike in the 54th minute, putting them in a strong position.
The advantage was quashed in stoppage time as Walid El Karti found the back of the net in the 94th minute. This late equalizer not only denied Sundowns a crucial home victory but also handed the Egyptian side significant momentum and a valuable away goal going into the return leg.
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Mvala’s concern is deeply rooted in recent history. The memory of inadvertently sealing Sundowns’ Champions League exit in May 2023 with a late own goal against Wydad Casablanca in the semi-final is still fresh.
Speaking to Sowetan, Mvala emphasized the team’s proactive approach to addressing this Achilles’ heel. “It [conceding late goals] is something we are aware of, and it’s something we’ve been working on fixing these days,” Mvala told Sowetan.
“It’s up to us as senior players that during the dying minutes of cup games, we make sure the team remains focused,” Mvala revealed.
He further elaborated on a specific vulnerability identified by the team: “We talk about it… that we must stay alert for the whole game, especially around those times.
If you check, most of the goals we’ve conceded late in cup games were crosses, so maybe the problem is that we don’t defend crosses better, so we’ve been trying to prevent teams from putting in crosses, especially late in games.
“It hurt so much to concede last minute goals and end up losing after playing well for the better part of the game. We’ve told ourselves that we must kill off games quickly to avoid this.”
The highly anticipated second leg of the Total Energies CAF Champions League final is set to take place this weekend in Cairo, Egypt. Kick off at the 30 June Stadium is set for 19h00 (SAST) on Sunday, 01 June 2025.