{"id":23717,"date":"2023-11-13T18:15:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T18:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions"},"modified":"2023-11-13T19:29:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T19:29:31","slug":"sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","title":{"rendered":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. <\/strong><\/span>South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-leg victory over Wydad Casablanca sealed a 3-2 aggregate triumph.<\/p>\n

Sundowns went into the home leg trailing 2-1 but turned the tie around thanks to goals from Peter Shalulile and Aubrey Modiba at a raucous Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The hosts started slowly as Wydad disrupted their rhythm through intensive pressing and fouls.<\/p>\n

But Sundowns’ persistence paid off when Shalulile pounced on the rebound after Youssef El Motie parried Teboho Mokoena’s shot in first-half stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Five minutes after the break, Modiba intercepted a wayward pass before racing through to double Sundowns’ advantage.<\/p>\n

With Wydad now needing two goals to win the final, Sundowns cleverly slowed the game down. Multiple players took intentional yellow cards for time-wasting in the tense finale.<\/p>\n

Wydad almost set up a grandstand finish when Ayoub El Amloud headed narrowly over with nine minutes left.<\/p>\n

But Sundowns held firm to complete an aggregate victory that made them the first AFL winners after the new club competition was launched this season.<\/p>\n

Coach Rulani Mokwena masterminded a tactical plan that overcame Wydad’s early pressure before ruthlessly capitalising on errors.<\/p>\n

The triumph caps a historic continental triumph for Sundowns who have now become the first champions of the new AFL.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Eritrea<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Eritrea. South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-leg victory over Wydad Casablanca sealed a 3-2 aggregate triumph. Sundowns went into the home leg trailing 2-1 but turned the tie around thanks to goals from Peter Shalulile and Aubrey Modiba at a raucous Loftus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[242,243,233],"class_list":["post-23717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-eritrea","tag-eritrea"],"yoast_head":"\nSundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions - Eritrea<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eritrea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"739\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Eritrea\",\"Eritrea\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\",\"name\":\"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions - Eritrea\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":739,\"caption\":\"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/\",\"name\":\"Eritrea\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions - Eritrea","description":"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions","og_description":"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","og_site_name":"Eritrea","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":739,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions","datePublished":"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions"},"wordCount":241,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Eritrea","Eritrea"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions","name":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions - Eritrea","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-13T18:15:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-13T19:29:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"South African Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned the first-ever African Football League (AFL) champions after a 2-0 second-l ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/sites\/27\/2023\/11\/sm_1699889637.583825.jpg","width":1000,"height":739,"caption":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/all-news\/sundowns-see-off-wydad-to-become-inaugural-afl-champions#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sundowns see off Wydad to become inaugural AFL champions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/","name":"Eritrea","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/eritrea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}