Mamelodi Sundowns defender Grant Kekana believes the Brazilians now have the mental capacity and enough maturity to finally break the hoodoo and go to the CAF Champions League final this season.

Since their first and only continental triumph in 2016, Masandawana have yet to reach a final in Africa’s premium club competition. They often choke in the semi-final stage, having done so in the last two campaigns.

Sundowns were sent packing in the last four by Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca via away goals in the 2022/23 season, before following up with another semi-final exit at the hands of Tunisian juggernauts Esperance de Tunis last term.

Now, the Chloorkop-based outfit will lock horns with reigning champions Al Ahly – a team Miguel Cardoso’s men are aware of the threat it poses. However, the Downs center-back says they have accumulated enough experience to know what they need to do to reign supreme over the Egyptians.

“Obviously, we understand what’s at stake, the team that we are playing against, but within our group, there’s a lot of belief and trust in each other. The coach emphasized that these two legs are going to be about little details. We have to apply ourselves really well,” said Kekana.

“We know how good and how well Al Ahly have done in the Champions League and the past two or three seasons, we’ve been limited to only this [semi-final] stage. 

We’ve paid our school fees; I think we are mature enough to understand that we know what we need to do on the day.

“It’s all about applying ourselves, having the right attitude, and fighting for the badge so that we can get a positive result.”

Kekana, who joined Sundowns ahead of the 2021/22 season, is confident that the lessons from their previous shortcomings at this stage of the competition, coupled with the Portuguese mentor’s experience, will come in handy as they aim to play the deciding continental match this campaign.

“What I mean by maturity is that we’ve been in this competition, and we’ve consistently reached this stage of the competition, and we fell short. I think we’ve accepted as a group because a lot of us have been together for quite some time, where we learnt what we lacked and what made us fall short,” the Bafana international added.

“So, I think with all that we’ve learnt and with coach who was in the final last year, us coming together, I think it gives us the confidence that we’ve learnt from our past mistakes and hopefully going into these two legs we’ll be able to minimize those mistakes so that we give ourselves an advantage to get into the final.”

The Tshwane team will host the Red Devils at Loftus Stadium on Saturday (15:00) and will undoubtedly be looking to draw inspiration from the fact that they emerged as victors on three occasions in the last five Champions League meetings against Al Ahly.