Mamelodi Sundowns survived a scare from Stade Malien to win their Caf Champions League quarterfinal return leg match 3-2 on aggregate at Stade du 26 Mars, Bamako in Mali on Sunday to advance to the semifinal.
Sundowns came into this match in a good position to qualify for the last four after thumping Malien 3-0 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in the first leg.
Masandawana, who lost 0-2 on Sunday and had Aubrey Modiba sent off late on, will now face Esperance in the semifinal on April 10 with the return leg seven days later. The Tunisian side will host the first leg first.
The home side had a daunting task as they needed to score four times without a response to overturn the first-leg result. They got off to a flyer when they opened the scoring in the first minute of the match through Taddeus Nkeng, who nodded home a cross from Mamadou Traore to reduce the lead to 3-1.
Sundowns took long to settle in the game with the home side dominating and had a second goal disallowed earlier in the first half after Nkeng calmly slotted past Ronwen Williams, but VAR came to their rescue to rule the goal out for offside.
The heat was seemingly affecting Sundowns as they struggled to combine and could not find their rhythm in the opening half.
The hosts doubled their lead five minutes before the interval through Haman Mandjan from a rebound after Sundowns defense failed to clear from Ousmane Coulibaly’s effort, which hit the woodwork to go into the interval with a 2-0 cushion.
Sundowns came back with more energy in the second half as they looked for the away goal and started to ask some questions of the hosts’ defence.
They knew an away goal would give them a huge advantage, needing the home side to score three goals to win 5-4 on aggregate. They started to put pressure on the hosts as they searched for that away goal. They kept the position well and played aggressively in the second half.
It seems the heat also affected the hosts as they dropped the tempo of the match in the second half and didn’t make those runs they made in the first half behind Sundowns defense.
Sundowns were reduced to 10 men when Modiba was shown a straight red card 12 minutes from time for a dangerous tackle on Moussa Diallo, but managed to hold on.
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