Esperance issue stern warning to Sundowns, citing Al Ahly result in Cairo

Speaking during the match day minus one press conference at Loftus Stadium today, ahead of tomorrow’s crunch 2nd leg semifinal clash, Beaumelle says stats change any time. The Frenchman says their results against Egyptian giants Al Ahly recently should serve as a warning to Sundowns.

"It's always statistics and statistics are meant to be changed. Of course, it's one indicator that they are very efficient. They are good actually in this competition," said Beumelle

READ: How can I watch Mamelodi Sundowns battle Esperance in the CAF Champions League on Saturday?

"But I remember one month ago we went to Cairo and Esperance never beat Al Ahli in Cairo in the history and we made it and we scored three goals. So everything is possible. It's football. Today we speak we are here to respond to your question, but tomorrow the best answer is on the field and to try to be efficient."

"We played a very good game. I think we troubled Sundowns last week, but we were not efficient. So we just have to believe in ourelves like we believed in Cairo and in the past. So everything is possible. We'll see tomorrow."

Esperance went down 1-0 on home soil in the first leg last week, and at a sold-out Loftus Stadium, they are desperate to get an opening goal. Beaumelle, a former Zambian international assistant coach and most recently Angola head coach, was cagey when asked about possible changes.

Esperance are playing Sundowns in the knockout stages of this competition for the third consecutive time, and Beaumelle has repeated his previous statements about Sundowns players and how they are leading Bafana Bafana to the World Cup. The Frenchman knows this very well, having lost to Bafana at the recent AFCON with Angola, and he reminds his critics in Tunisia who they are up against.

Meanwhile, there have been many videos of fans travelling from all over the world to support Esperance for this game, and Beaumelle also confirms that they started coming to support them at training last week and is talking about a crowd of over 7000 at training. He says the most important thing is to make them proud tomorrow.