Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rhulani Mokwena says he is impressed with Senegal’s performance at the FIFA World Cup but warns that the knockout stages will be a different ball
game.
Mokwena and the Sundowns technical team spent five days in Qatar, where they watched the opening 17 matches of the tournament.
“I’m not surprised that Senegal are through to the knockout stages they were good against Holland. That was the best game,” the coach says.
“They won convincingly against Ecuador, but I felt their performance against Holland was superb, and credit must go to coach Aliou Cisse, even though they are without Sadio Mane.
It’s going to be difficult in the knockout stages against England though. Spain and France are some of the best teams as well. Netherlands have played well and they are organized, you can see they are experienced.
There were interesting results when Saudi Arabia beat Argentina 2-1 and Japan win over Germany. This tells you that in football, the gap between the major football nations and minor football nations is not big.”