Young Africans head coach Miguel Gamondi has issued a big claim regarding their next CAF Champions League opponents Mamelodi Sundowns as well as Al Ahly.
With the international break having now concluded, the stage is set for the quarter-finals of the CAFCL this weekend.
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Tanzania are the most represented nation in the last eight, with two of their iconic clubs, Young Africans – also known as Yanga – and Simba SC, still in contention for the ultimate prize, although they have been drawn against arguably two of the biggest teams on the continent, Downs and reigning champions Al Ahly.
Ahead of their first leg against Masandawana in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, Yanga boss Gamondi, who was an assistant coach at Chloorkop in the 2005/06 season, candidly admitted that his former South African side are one of the best clubs in Africa.
"Sundowns is one of the biggest teams performing in the continent along with Al Ahly, no doubt they are the best on the continent," he told CAF's official website.
"They are where they are today because of the consistency they have shown over the years. I really like the style of play of Sundowns. They play their type of football that I like.
"I was coach at Sundowns, and I know what they like to do and what they are building now is not only important for South Africa, but for African continent because they it's an advert for Africa.
"For us, it is probably going to be the toughest opponent we will get but at the same time it will be a great learning experience for Young Africans to play with a quality side and technical staff. I think this will be a great advert for African football."
Asked what a good finish for Yanga in the CAFCL would be, Gamondi added: "The goal of the club was to reach the group stage and after reaching that, we said we want to compete and competed against big clubs like Ahly and came second.
"Now we want to do well in the knockout because it will be a good evaluation for where we are. It is a learning experience and for sure, we will play our best.
"We may not be in the best condition for this game as some players came back with injuries from the FIFA break but we will try our best and show that we deserve to be at this stage of the competition.
"In football you never know. Logic says Sundowns is the bigger team and they have played longer together and invested a lot of money, but football is 11 vs 11 and we hope that we will get a result. We are a competitive team, and we will do our best."
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