The Brazilians, who were involved in CAF Champions League action last week, host ABC Motsepe League outfit EC Bees at Loftus Stadium tonight (19h30), determined to get a victory so that they keep their hopes of winning the league and cup double alive.
This is the second time in a row Sundowns play a lower division team in the competition, after coming up against Cape Town All Stars in the last 32. Pitso Mosimane’s men edged that encounter 1-0 at Athlone Stadium and are expecting more of the same against an EC Bees side that beat Mariveni United in the first stage of the competition.
“We’ve had enough time to rest and recover [after the Champions League game],” Arendse tells snl24.com/kickoff.
“We have been here before and we have learnt [not to take lower division teams lightly]. We played Vasco da Gama in one year in the semi-finals and they gave us a hard time. We won that game 1-0.
“We played Cape Town All Stars in the first round of this year’s competition and it was a tough game. They had chances to score, but we managed to score. You know the teams in the lower leagues, they want to show what they can do, so we are not taking it for granted.”
Sundowns will be without the suspended duo of Tiyani Mabunda and Sibusiso Vilakazi.
Mosimane could use this game to give players such as George Lebese, Lucky Mohomi and Razak Brimah an opportunity to get minutes under the belt.