CAF Champions League: Santos backs AS FAR to stage comeback against Mamelodi Sundowns in Rabat

AS FAR Rabat head coach Alexandre Santos remains optimistic about his side’s chances of overturning their deficit against Mamelodi Sundowns in the second leg of their CAF Champions League clash in Rabat.

The Moroccan side suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to the South African champions in the first leg at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Sunday, with Aubrey Modiba’s strike proving decisive for Miguel Cardoso’s men.

Despite the setback, Santos believes his team is still firmly in contention and can use home advantage to their benefit in the return encounter, with reports indicating tickets for the match had already sold out last week.

“The most important thing is that we are alive,” Santos said after the match.

“We are very alive to go to the second leg and try to change the score, try everything that we can, in our home with our supporters, with our confidence and with our philosophy of game.

“Usually we don’t have the ball so many times as we did and it’s not easy when we lose balls and the opponents control the situation in the game. It’s also not easy when we lose a little bit of the team’s balance.”

The first-leg encounter was briefly overshadowed by crowd trouble involving sections of supporters in the stands, although security personnel swiftly brought the situation under control.

Santos admitted he was largely focused on the game but expressed hope that no one had been injured during the disturbance.

“I was concentrating on the match. I hope it was just a problem and that nobody was hurt. I think it was not the kind of situation that caused any problems for the players,” the Portuguese trainer added.

The decisive second leg is scheduled for Sunday at 16:00 GMT in Rabat.