{"id":52593,"date":"2026-03-13T20:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=52593"},"modified":"2026-03-13T20:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T20:25:16","slug":"sundowns-brush-aside-poor-stade-malien-to-move-closer-to-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/03\/13\/sundowns-brush-aside-poor-stade-malien-to-move-closer-to-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundowns brush aside poor Stade Malien"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Sundowns now have one foot in the semi-finals ahead of the second leg next Sunday.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Mamelodi Sundowns made light work of Stade Malien with a 3-0 win in the first leg of their CAF Champions League quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Khuliso Mudau, Brayan Le\u00f3n and Iqraam Rayners got the Brazilians over the line in what was a dominant display against the Malian champions in Tshwane. Sundowns now have one foot in the semi-finals ahead of the second leg next Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> Pirates\u2019 Ndaba highlights importance of converting chances<\/p>\n<p>The visitors did well to keep Masandawana at bay for the opening 30 minutes by sitting deep and inviting pressure. For all their ball possession, Sundowns initially lacked the cutting edge in the final third. Midway through the first half, Ronwen Williams went down, allowing coach Miguel Cardoso to call his players to the touchline.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the Portuguese coach said appeared to spark them into life. Khuliso Mudau beat the offside trap in the 33rd minute to put Sundowns ahead.<\/p>\n<p>The celebrations in the stands were short-lived as the linesman flagged for offside after Mudau had been put through on goal by a defence-splitting pass from Arthur Sales.<\/p>\n<p>After VAR intervened, the goal was awarded, with Mudau and his teammates wheeling away in celebration after replays showed he was onside when Sales played the pass. The video technology was not used during the group stages and only comes into play in the knockout phase of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Sundowns should have gone into the break with more than just one goal to the good, but Aubrey Modiba and Tashreeq Matthews were both denied by Stade Malien goalkeeper N\u2019Golo Traor\u00e9 on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n<p>Modiba weaved his way into the box before unleashing a shot that was parried back into danger by Traor\u00e9, and Matthews was also unable to beat the goalkeeper from the rebound.<\/p>\n<p>Le\u00f3n doubled Sundowns\u2019 lead nine minutes into the second half with a poacher\u2019s goal inside the box after a clever pass from Nuno Santos. The Colombian needed two touches to put the ball into the back of the net, first controlling before tapping home.<\/p>\n<p>It was his third goal of the Champions League campaign since joining the club in January. His brace in the final group-stage match against MC Alger helped book Sundowns\u2019 ticket into the last eight.<\/p>\n<p>Rayners came off the bench to put a lid on the result with a half-volley from another superb Santos assist in the 74th minute. VAR had to intervene again after the goal was initially ruled out for offside, but it was awarded moments later as Loftus erupted into wild celebrations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:<\/strong> Chiefs\u2019 Velebayi \u2013 \u2018I need to score\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Sundowns are now firmly in control of the tie and should progress to the semi-finals with ease. Stade Malien will need something special to overturn the deficit against last season\u2019s losing finalists.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Sundowns #brush #poor #Stade #Malien<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sundowns now have one foot in the semi-finals ahead of the second leg next Sunday. Mamelodi Sundowns made light work&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52595,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593\/revisions\/52595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}