Three goals, three points set Mamelodi Sundowns’s CAF Champions League (CL) profound quest on a high with a 3-0 score margin in Pretoria, Tshwane, last night. The other Group C match between Algeria’s USM Alger and Morocco’s Wydad/WAC Casablanca ended 1-1.

Flamboyant Mamelodi Sundowns launched their pursuit for the top continental prize in emphatic style and top Group C with three points. Atlético Petróleos de Luanda were hammered 3-0 in the CAF CL at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria Saturday night.

Mauricio Affonso got Sundowns show going by netting the first goal in the 7th minute from kick off. In the 29th minute, Motjeka Madisha echoed Affonso’s strike to get the host on a relative comfortable path: 2-0.

To cement the resounding victory, Sphelele Mkhulise drilled in the 3rd in the 76th minute. Petro de Luanda were flattened. There was no recovery from the three (3) goals to nil with less than 15 minutes before the final whistle. Neither a scalable threat. Sundowns made sure of it. They were home and in absolute command.

Quite openly, the Pretorians had their ducks in a row while the Angolans kept groping in dark chasing shadows in a South African night sky some 2, 000 km far away from home. It was a lonely and is going to be an unforgettable trip from the southern tip of Africa.

Obviously, it is not over by a long shot. This weekend’s CAF CL games were the first-leg of the round-robin group stages. For this fact, Sundowns will travel to Angola for a return fixture.

Will Petro de Luanda have their revenge? It is worth waiting for the eagerly anticipated second-leg Champions League match on Feb. 21, 2020.

But before that, Sundowns will have few Champions League clashes to expend with. Among those for their second and thrid Group C games are against Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca Dec. 6, 2019 and USM Alger on Dec. 27, 2019 in Algeria.

USM Alger will visit Pretoria for the Feb. 14, 2020 return encounter, the fourth of the group before Masandawana touch down Angola in their fifth match. That will be followed by Wydad Casablanca’s return match in SA on Mar. 6, 2020; making it the sixth and the final game of the round-robin phase/s. Then the Group C winners will be known.