Grant Kekana: Sundowns now have a handle on Esperance

The Brazilians edged Esperance Sportive de Tunis 1-0 in their quarter-final first leg at Loftus Versfeld with a second-half Peter Shalulile goal.

The second leg takes place at Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi in Tunisia on Tuesday, and Kekana explained that his team now have a good understanding of their Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 opponents.

Reflecting on the game, Kekana said on IOL: "It's a huge confidence booster.

"We were able to see what they were about and what they were coming here with. They wanted to be on the transition, but I thought we managed to deal with a lot of it, and hopefully, we can build on this performance ahead of Tunisia."

It was not all plain sailing for Sundowns, who were put under pressure by Esperance for much of the tie.

Kekana added: "They started pressing us high, but we knew what to do. We just had to manage the game and make sure we did not concede because we had the lead.

"Our job is to play football. The game has a lot of emotions, but we must not let negative emotions take over.

"There is a lot of experience in the team, and we will remind ourselves that we have to play football. There will be fights here and there, but we must not be distracted."