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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All those associated with Mamelodi Sundowns have dreamt for almost a decade about the situation they find themselves in now. The Brazilians are contesting their first African Champions League final since 2016, when it ended in a 3-1 aggregate victory for them over Egyptian outfit Zamalek. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024/25 they make a third return to the decider on the grandest stage of African club soccer – with their opponents being another Egyptian side, the Pyramids. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To reach the final Sundowns saw off record African champions Al Ahly, squeezing into the decider on the away-goals rule following a 1-1 aggregate score over two legs. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pyramids pirouetted past Orlando Pirates, claiming a 3-2 aggregate victory to book their spot in their first Champions League final, in just their second appearance in the continental competition. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The clubs will face off in the first leg on 24 May at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The reverse fixture is scheduled to take place in Cairo on 1 June. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Undisputed South African champs</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite Pirates’ best efforts this season, Sundowns recently retained their Premiership title, winning South Africa’s top-flight soccer league for an emphatic eighth consecutive season. The Pretoria side now have more league titles in the Premier Soccer League era than all the previous league winners combined.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their latest league conquest placed Masandawana on 15 league titles. The next-best sides are Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs with four Premiership titles apiece, followed by SuperSport United with three. Santos, Manning Rangers and Bidvest Wits have one each. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, as respected South African coach and four-time Premiership champion Gavin Hunt said, the metric of success for Sundowns is not how many times they win the local league, although it’s certainly a key component of a successful season. He opined that a memorable season for Sundowns involves continental success. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2730143\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2211995643.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1755\" height=\"1144\" /> <em>Emam Ashour of Al Ahly and a Sundowns’ player compete for the ball during their Champions League semifinal in Cairo on 25 April 2025. (Photo: Sayed Hassan / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2730142\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TL_2399224.jpg\" alt=\"Sundowns\" width=\"1148\" height=\"1782\" /> <em>Sundowns’ coach Miguel Cardoso during the Betway Premiership match against Chippa United at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on 14 May 2025. (Photo: Richard Huggard / Gallo Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“They should be judged in the Champions League. They should be in the semifinal and final every year and that’s where you should judge them. Because the gap is so much bigger than everybody in the league,” Hunt said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Final hurdle</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After years of being trapped in the quarterfinal stage (losing there three seasons in a row), the Brazilians finally shattered that glass ceiling. They reached the semifinals twice (2023 and 2024) under the tutelage of Rulani Mokwena, but fell short of the final each time. This took some of the shine off the magnificent work Mokwena and his technical team did in general. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the back of those couple of semifinal tumbles, Masandawana have finally cleared that hurdle. Now only two matches stand between them and ascending to the pinnacle of African soccer again. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portuguese tactician Miguel Cardoso, in his first season with Sundowns, has delivered the long-awaited final. Now they will be aiming to do what they did with Pitso Mosimane in 2016. This is why Cardoso – who also reached last season’s Champions League final (with Tunisia’s Espérance) – was recruited by Sundowns in December 2024. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cardoso succeeded Manqoba Mngqithi as head coach after Sundowns had a mixed start to their season. They toiled in the Champions League as they collected just two points from as many games under Mngqithi. They scored a single goal. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were also vanquished by Premiership rookies Magesi in the Carling Knockout Cup final in November, losing 2-1 to the Limpopo team.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2093104\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TL_2183991.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5568\" height=\"3712\" /> <em>Former Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena during a DStv Premiership match against SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on 12 March 2024. (Photo: Lefty Shivambu / Gallo Images)</em></p>\r\n<h4><b>Change of guard</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> </span></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sundowns acted quickly as they released Mngqithi after he’d spent a decade at the club, first as assistant to Mosimane, then as head coach. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We must never be slaves to our history. We need to celebrate it and make sure it’s something that drives us forward,” said Sundowns chairperson Thlopie Motsepe as the club welcomed Cardoso.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“As a club of 54 years of heritage and existence, we always have to keep striving to grow, adapt and find new ways to achieve our dreams. We made our decision on that need,” Motsepe said. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cardoso has coached at clubs such as Porto, Braga, Deportivo La Coruna, Celta Vigo, AEK Athens, Nantes and Shakhtar Donetsk. Despite this vast experience, some in South Africa expressed doubt about Cardoso’s capabilities. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time of his appointment the Portuguese coach had only won one trophy as a head coach, clinching the Tunisian top-flight with Espérance. This made people doubt whether he could truly transform the fortunes of Sundowns in the Champions League.</span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2730141\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TL_2387167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1796\" height=\"1118\" />\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Masandawana’s recent Premiership triumph, he’s now won two trophies. He can add a third over the next week. However, Cardoso has played down the significance of his successful start to life in South Africa, saying he never paid any attention to the noise to begin with. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I don’t need external validation. I don’t live for that, I live for other things. So, people having doubts about me was never a problem for me,” Cardoso stated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this being the Pyramids’ first Champions League final, it is not their maiden continental final. They played in the 2020 Confederation Cup decider, losing 1-0 Morocco’s RS Berkane. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pyramids are a relatively new team. They were only founded in 2008, as Al Assiouty Sport. In 2018, under new ownership, they rebranded as the Pyramids. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then they have been a disruptor, not only in the Egyptian Premier League but in Africa as well. Hence, they find themselves in this position. They will be no pushovers. </span><b>DM </b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> </span>\r\n<h4><b>Champions League final fixtures</b></h4>\r\n<b>Saturday, 24 May</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mamelodi Sundowns vs Pyramids (3pm)</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sunday, 1 June</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyramids vs Mamelodi Sundowns (7pm). </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All those associated with Mamelodi Sundowns have dreamt for almost a decade about the situation they find themselves in now. The Brazilians are contesting their first African Champions League final since 2016, when it ended in a 3-1 aggregate victory for them over Egyptian outfit Zamalek. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2024/25 they make a third return to the decider on the grandest stage of African club soccer – with their opponents being another Egyptian side, the Pyramids. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To reach the final Sundowns saw off record African champions Al Ahly, squeezing into the decider on the away-goals rule following a 1-1 aggregate score over two legs. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pyramids pirouetted past Orlando Pirates, claiming a 3-2 aggregate victory to book their spot in their first Champions League final, in just their second appearance in the continental competition. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The clubs will face off in the first leg on 24 May at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The reverse fixture is scheduled to take place in Cairo on 1 June. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Undisputed South African champs</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite Pirates’ best efforts this season, Sundowns recently retained their Premiership title, winning South Africa’s top-flight soccer league for an emphatic eighth consecutive season. The Pretoria side now have more league titles in the Premier Soccer League era than all the previous league winners combined.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their latest league conquest placed Masandawana on 15 league titles. The next-best sides are Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs with four Premiership titles apiece, followed by SuperSport United with three. Santos, Manning Rangers and Bidvest Wits have one each. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, as respected South African coach and four-time Premiership champion Gavin Hunt said, the metric of success for Sundowns is not how many times they win the local league, although it’s certainly a key component of a successful season. He opined that a memorable season for Sundowns involves continental success. </span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2730143\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1755\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2730143\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2211995643.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1755\" height=\"1144\" /> <em>Emam Ashour of Al Ahly and a Sundowns’ player compete for the ball during their Champions League semifinal in Cairo on 25 April 2025. (Photo: Sayed Hassan / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2730142\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1148\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2730142\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TL_2399224.jpg\" alt=\"Sundowns\" width=\"1148\" height=\"1782\" /> <em>Sundowns’ coach Miguel Cardoso during the Betway Premiership match against Chippa United at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on 14 May 2025. (Photo: Richard Huggard / Gallo Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“They should be judged in the Champions League. They should be in the semifinal and final every year and that’s where you should judge them. Because the gap is so much bigger than everybody in the league,” Hunt said.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Final hurdle</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After years of being trapped in the quarterfinal stage (losing there three seasons in a row), the Brazilians finally shattered that glass ceiling. They reached the semifinals twice (2023 and 2024) under the tutelage of Rulani Mokwena, but fell short of the final each time. This took some of the shine off the magnificent work Mokwena and his technical team did in general. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the back of those couple of semifinal tumbles, Masandawana have finally cleared that hurdle. Now only two matches stand between them and ascending to the pinnacle of African soccer again. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Portuguese tactician Miguel Cardoso, in his first season with Sundowns, has delivered the long-awaited final. Now they will be aiming to do what they did with Pitso Mosimane in 2016. This is why Cardoso – who also reached last season’s Champions League final (with Tunisia’s Espérance) – was recruited by Sundowns in December 2024. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cardoso succeeded Manqoba Mngqithi as head coach after Sundowns had a mixed start to their season. They toiled in the Champions League as they collected just two points from as many games under Mngqithi. They scored a single goal. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were also vanquished by Premiership rookies Magesi in the Carling Knockout Cup final in November, losing 2-1 to the Limpopo team.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2093104\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"5568\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2093104\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/TL_2183991.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5568\" height=\"3712\" /> <em>Former Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena during a DStv Premiership match against SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on 12 March 2024. (Photo: Lefty Shivambu / Gallo Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n<h4><b>Change of guard</b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> </span></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sundowns acted quickly as they released Mngqithi after he’d spent a decade at the club, first as assistant to Mosimane, then as head coach. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We must never be slaves to our history. We need to celebrate it and make sure it’s something that drives us forward,” said Sundowns chairperson Thlopie Motsepe as the club welcomed Cardoso.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“As a club of 54 years of heritage and existence, we always have to keep striving to grow, adapt and find new ways to achieve our dreams. We made our decision on that need,” Motsepe said. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cardoso has coached at clubs such as Porto, Braga, Deportivo La Coruna, Celta Vigo, AEK Athens, Nantes and Shakhtar Donetsk. Despite this vast experience, some in South Africa expressed doubt about Cardoso’s capabilities. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the time of his appointment the Portuguese coach had only won one trophy as a head coach, clinching the Tunisian top-flight with Espérance. This made people doubt whether he could truly transform the fortunes of Sundowns in the Champions League.</span>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2730141\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TL_2387167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1796\" height=\"1118\" />\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Masandawana’s recent Premiership triumph, he’s now won two trophies. He can add a third over the next week. However, Cardoso has played down the significance of his successful start to life in South Africa, saying he never paid any attention to the noise to begin with. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I don’t need external validation. I don’t live for that, I live for other things. So, people having doubts about me was never a problem for me,” Cardoso stated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this being the Pyramids’ first Champions League final, it is not their maiden continental final. They played in the 2020 Confederation Cup decider, losing 1-0 Morocco’s RS Berkane. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pyramids are a relatively new team. They were only founded in 2008, as Al Assiouty Sport. In 2018, under new ownership, they rebranded as the Pyramids. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then they have been a disruptor, not only in the Egyptian Premier League but in Africa as well. Hence, they find themselves in this position. They will be no pushovers. </span><b>DM </b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> </span>\r\n<h4><b>Champions League final fixtures</b></h4>\r\n<b>Saturday, 24 May</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mamelodi Sundowns vs Pyramids (3pm)</span>\r\n\r\n<b>Sunday, 1 June</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyramids vs Mamelodi Sundowns (7pm). </span><b>DM</b>",
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"summary": "They have yearned for this moment since 2016, when they were crowned African champions for the first time. Now Mamelodi Sundowns are back in the final of the Champions League, for the third time.",
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Emam Ashour of Al Ahly and a Sundowns’ player compete for the ball during their Champions League semifinal in Cairo on 25 April 2025. (Photo: Sayed Hassan / Getty Images)
Sundowns’ coach Miguel Cardoso during the Betway Premiership match against Chippa United at Buffalo City Stadium in East London on 14 May 2025. (Photo: Richard Huggard / Gallo Images)
Former Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena during a DStv Premiership match against SuperSport United at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on 12 March 2024. (Photo: Lefty Shivambu / Gallo Images)