{"id":64478,"date":"2025-11-22T18:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T18:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league"},"modified":"2025-11-22T19:11:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T19:11:20","slug":"lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league","title":{"rendered":"Lupopo Prepares to Face Sundowns in CAF Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo assistant coach Yassine Salmi has expressed confidence and focus as his side prepares to face Mamelodi Sundowns in a crucial TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Group C encounter at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Lupopo enter the group-stage fixture riding high after eliminating South African giants Orlando Pirates in the preliminary rounds, an upset that sent a strong message across the continent. Now, they turn their attention to another heavyweight: the 2016 African champions, Sundowns.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201cThey are interesting. We know Sundowns very well. We have studied Sundowns well. We are not here for tourism,\u201d<\/b> Salmi said. <b>\u201cWe come to play a simple game. At home, we take game by game. And each game is managed by all aspects. We never take one aspect and forget the other. In general, we are very specific.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>He highlighted that Sundowns\u2019 tactical identity, particularly their dominance in possession, is well known to his side.<b> \u201cWe know very well that Sundowns has a goal for their opponents. They keep the ball and want us to be running after it,\u201d <\/b>he explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a different strategy. We can go straight to action and hurt them somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Salmi stressed that Lupopo are prepared both mentally and tactically, insisting that his team will not fall into the trap of chasing shadows. <b>\u201cWe don\u2019t run like that. We take action. We know Sundowns very well, not only one aspect, but many aspects,\u201d <\/b>he said. <b>\u201cWe are ready. We did our homework. We know how they play.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>With Bukasa sidelined, leadership responsibilities fall heavily on Salmi, but he remains unfazed, reiterating Lupopo\u2019s ambition and competitive spirit. Lupopo\u2019s victory over Pirates has already shown that they are capable of delivering surprises on South African soil.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo assistant coach Yassine Salmi has expressed confidence and focus as his side prepares to face Mamelodi Sundowns in a crucial TotalEnergies CAF Champions League Group C encounter at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday. Lupopo enter the group-stage fixture riding high after eliminating South African giants Orlando Pirates in the preliminary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-64478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lupopo Prepares to Face Sundowns in CAF Champions League - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo assistant coach Yassine Salmi has expressed confidence and focus as his side prepares to face Mamelod ...\" \/>\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\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lupopo Prepares to Face Sundowns in CAF Champions League\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saint-E\u0301loi Lupopo assistant coach Yassine Salmi has expressed confidence and focus as his side prepares to face Mamelod ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-22T18:23:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-22T19:11:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763825961.110634.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1151\" \/>\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\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lupopo Prepares to Face Sundowns in CAF Champions League\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-22T18:23:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-22T19:11:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1763825961.110634.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lupopo-prepares-to-face-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\",\"name\":\"Lupopo Prepares to Face Sundowns in CAF Champions League - 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