Sundowns’ Nuno Santos tells team to focus on Super Cup after Champions League exit

Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Nuno Santos says last season’s CAF Champions League success remains evidence of the club’s quality, despite their surprise preliminary-round elimination from this year’s competition.

The South African side surrendered their continental title after losing to Angolan team Wiliete SC, meaning they did not reach the group stage. The result has prompted increased scrutiny of Sundowns, but Santos believes the squad must now concentrate on the opportunities still available to them.

Sundowns face CAF Confederation Cup holders USM Alger in the CAF Super Cup, and Santos said the team should not allow criticism surrounding their Champions League exit to distract them.

“I mean, we won the Champions League last year, so it’s not easy as well. Obviously as I said before we wanted to be in the competition but I don’t want to speak too much about that as well because that’s not what we are here for, we are here for the Super Cup,” Santos said.

“I’m focused on that, we are focused on that, we are focused on everything that we control from now on and the Champions League is not one of them.”

Santos also acknowledged the outside discussion surrounding the club, but said Sundowns’ players and staff remained committed to improving the team.

“We know that people talk, sometimes people talk too much without knowing what’s happening in the background. The only thing that I can say is we do our best everyday to make Sundowns better.”

The midfielder said Sundowns still had several competitions to pursue this season. Although they can no longer defend their CAF Champions League crown, their remaining targets include domestic honours, with the possibility of facing Paris Saint-Germain in the FIFA Continental Cup also mentioned.

“This year we have a lot of competitions to win, to go for it and playing in Sundowns we can only be inside of the competitions to win them all. So, that’s our focus to win every competition that we can,” he added.

“We want them all, obviously the one that we cannot win anymore is the Champions League but we want the other ones. So, focusing on that.”