Manqoba Mngqithi warns against taking Mbabane Swallows lightly

The two sides clash in the preliminary rounds of the continent’s premium club competition and given their respective ranking, many expect Sundowns to walk all over their counterparts. 

But Mngqithi says this is the wrong approach. 

"To be honest, for me it's never about sitting at home. It's about winning a football match. Because the dynamics of every match will always create problems for you if you're coming with a mentality of you are going to score a lot of goals," said Mngqithi.

"The game itself will tell you which direction it wants to take, because I remember in the MTN8 in the past, we went to play against Bloemfontein Celtic and everybody would have thought we are going to score a lot of goals and have a very good start to the season.

"We lost 5-0 [in 2015], so it's very important to respect the opponents and not go into a game with a preconceived idea that this is a game where you need to stamp your authority.

"We have to go in with same respect as we would give an Al Ahly or Esperance, because a game of football requires that, more so in matches where everybody expects you to win – those are the games that, for me, are the most difficult.

"Because those are the game where sometimes players would lack intrinsic motivation, and they rely more on the coaches and the other senior players – like Denis [Onyango] – to make them aware that we cannot take this game for granted."

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