Sundowns face ASEC in crunch showdown

Mamelodi Sundowns will be aiming to take a step closer to the 2018-19 Caf Champions League knockout stages with victory over ASEC Mimosas at Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan on Tuesday.

Kick-off is at 6:00pm CAT, live on SuperSport.

The Brazilians head into the fourth round of group stage fixtures atop Group A, level on six points with Wydad Casablanca.

Pitso Mosimane's men made it back-to-back wins on the continent with a commanding 3-1 win over ASEC at Loftus Stadium earlier this month. Mosa Lebusa, Themba Zwane and Emiliano Tade found the back of the net for the hosts in a game which could've yielded more goals for the home side.

Victory over the Ivorian giants was preceded by a 2-1 win over Wydad - this after the 2016 champions lost their opening game of the campaign by the same scoreline away to Nigeria's Lobi Stars.

Anthony Laffor expects nothing but a tough encounter away to ASEC and the Liberia international predicts that the Ivorian's will change their approach in Abidjan.

“It is going to be a difficult game in their own backyard where they usually enjoy massive support‚ but then they need to come out and attack us‚” said Laffor.

“In Pretoria‚ they sat back and wanted to catch us on the counterattack but they are under pressure to win because they are at home and they want to improve their position on the log.

“If they become desperate and come all out at us‚ we could use that to our advantage. We just need to hold them in the first 20 to 30 minutes and see how the game goes.”

ASEC started their group stage campaign with a 5-2 defeat away to Wydad in Rabat before edging Lobi Stars 1-0 in their most recent home fixture thanks to a solitary strike from Herve Diomande.

Tunisian referee Youssef Essrayri will take charge of the clash.