Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Godfrey Sapula says they are bracing themselves for a tough day at the office when they face Zambia’s Zesco Ndola Girls on Sunday (24 August 2025) in the second match of the CAF Women’s Champions League COSAFA qualifiers.
The clash takes place at the University of Johannesburg’s AW Muller Stadium in Auckland Park. Kickoff is at 3pm.
Banyana ba Style got their campaign in the regional competition off to a flyer when they defeated Ntopwa FC 3-0 on Friday (22 August) with goals from Refilwe Tholakele who grabbed a brace, while second half substitute Nthabiseng Majiya chipped in with the third one. But Sapula is taking nothing for granted.
“We watched a bit of Zesco, and we are quite aware of the threat that they will pose. They have good strikers, they’re very quick. We are quite aware of what we are coming up against. We are playing at home and have to maximize every little advantage we have,” said Sapula.
“We have to impose our game, but we’ll give them the respect that they deserve. The bigger objective is to win the COSAFA, and we have to meet these types of opponents to claim what we think we deserve, we will go all out and make sure that we get maximum points.”
The Zambians come into this match at the back of a dominant 3-0 win against debutants Beauties FC from Namibia – and Sapula adds that it’s all the more reason they cannot be complacent.
“It’s important that we guard against that (complacency) because we’re coming up against a very good team. But we have players that are experienced, they know what it takes to play these types of matches. I don’t think we moved to gear number five against Ntopwa – yes, we controlled the ball and the tempo, but I think we can still play a lot better,” added Sapula.
“The game itself will actually bring more out of the team and the players, but we need to move to the next gear so that we’re able to dominate this group and make sure that we put ourselves in a chance to progress to the semis.”
Sundowns Ladies are without some key players in this tournament – the likes of defender Karabo Dhlamini and forward Lelona Daweti.
“Other players that are not here it’s maybe for other reasons, it’s not for selection purposes and that, but I think I want to focus more on the players that we have here and as we said we have a big pool of players that are experienced who are quality all around. We trust and believe in all the players that we brought here that they will do the job for the club,” explained the former Bafana Bafana midfielder.
He added that this was also an opportunity to rope in young players to give them the much-needed experience. The Brazilians recently promoted some players from their junior ranks, the likes of Jabulile Mbatha and Munashe Mugwara, and Sapula says he would love to see them play.
“Remember there is evolution in football, especially in women’s football – women’s football is on the rise, we also have to evolve. We have to start to introduce these young ones and give them this experience because they are definitely the future. Hopefully they will get minutes in this tournament so that it accelerates their growth and development,” said Sapula.
In the battle of the vanquished in Group A, Beauties FC will face Ntopwa FC also on Sunday.
Kickoff for this encounter is at 12h00.
By Matlhomola Morake
