Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has explained what he has ingrained in his side similar to Manchester City and Arsenal.
The Brazilians got back on track in the CAF Champions League, as they overcame their two-game winless run after edging Pyramids 1-0 in Cairo on Tuesday evening and remained at the top of Group A, with two games left to play in the section.
After getting an early goal through a scorcher by Teboho Mokoena, Sundowns managed to defend well, particularly in the second stanza, against a Pyramids side piling on the pressure.
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The Brazilians are known for controlling matches with long periods of possession but Mokwena suggested that the game in some moments required them to suffer and they had to do what the game required, which is a hallmark of what makes teams like Manchester City and Arsenal hard to beat.
"We're football romantics, we love football but we also understand that in a game of football we have to answer the questions the game asks you," Mokwena told reporters in Cairo.
"If the game asks you to counter-press, you've got to counter-press, we don't play for that. If the game asks you to suffer and absorb the pressure, you have to suffer and absorb the pressure but we don't play for that but we're able to do that.
"We had good moments where we dominated possession and that's not always easy in the (CAF) Champions League. That's the modern thing at the moment. If you look at the modern game, the best teams in the world, what makes Manchester City such a difficult team to beat?" he asked.
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"It's because they work very hard when they don't have the ball. What makes Arsenal, at the moment, probably the best team in the English Premier League, they work very hard in the phases when they don't have the ball. And that's where the modern game is, answer the questions the game asks you," he added.
