Sundowns brush aside poor Stade Malien to move closer to semis

Iqraam Rayners of Mamelodi Sundowns celebrates goal with teammates during the CAF Champions League 2025/26 match against Stade Malien at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria on Friday. Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix Mamelodi Sundowns made light work of Stade Malien with a 3-0 win in the first leg of their CAF Champions League quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night. Khuliso Mudau, Brayan León and Iqraam Rayners got the Brazilians over the line in what was a dominant display against the Malian champions in Tshwane.

Sundowns now have one foot in the semi-finals ahead of the second leg next Sunday. The visitors did well to keep Masandawana at bay for the opening 30 minutes by sitting deep and inviting pressure. For all their ball possession, Sundowns initially lacked the cutting edge in the final third.

Midway through the first half, Ronwen Williams went down, allowing coach Miguel Cardoso to call his players to the touchline. Whatever the Portuguese coach said appeared to spark them into life. Khuliso Mudau beat the offside trap in the 33rd minute to put Sundowns ahead.

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The celebrations in the stands were short-lived as the linesman flagged for offside after Mudau had been put through on goal by a defence-splitting pass from Arthur Sales. After VAR intervened, the goal was awarded, with Mudau and his teammates wheeling away in celebration after replays showed he was onside when Sales played the pass. The video technology was not used during the group stages and only comes into play in the knockout phase of the competition.

Sundowns should have gone into the break with more than just one goal to the good, but Aubrey Modiba and Tashreeq Matthews were both denied by Stade Malien goalkeeper N’Golo Traoré on the stroke of half-time. Modiba weaved his way into the box before unleashing a shot that was parried back into danger by Traoré, and Matthews was also unable to beat the goalkeeper from the rebound. León doubled Sundowns’ lead nine minutes into the second half with a poacher’s goal inside the box after a clever pass from Nuno Santos.

The Colombian needed two touches to put the ball into the back of the net, first controlling before tapping home. It was his third goal of the Champions League campaign since joining the club in January. His brace in the final group-stage match against MC Alger helped book Sundowns’ ticket into the last eight.

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