Despite an early red card, Mamelodi Sundowns secured their spot in the African Football League semifinals with a 2-0 aggregate victory over Petro de Luanda following a goalless draw at Loftus Versfeld.
Mothobi Mvala was given his marching orders in the third minute after the defender was adjudged to have committed a professional foul on visiting forward Tiago Azulao, who was clean through on goal.
Sundowns though had the cushion of a two-goal lead that they achieved in Angola courtesy of strikes from Marcelo Allende and Thapelo Maseko.
Petro de Luanda is giving everything!
Watch live and replay on https://t.co/DIk5JeITof 🔥 (Except SA and Tanzania) pic.twitter.com/YtAcpqOg1a
— African Football League (@afl_africa) October 24, 2023
Despite being down to 10 men the home side still had opportunities to extend their aggregate lead before the interval with Gaston Sirino and Allende testing goalkeeper Hugo Marques.
The Angolan club showed no real threat to the Sundowns goal as the teams went into the halftime break with no change to the scoreline.
The second half followed the same pattern as Masandawana just kept their shape and controlled the tempo, content to see out game for the favourable result.
Sundowns will face Al Ahly in the semi-finals on the 29th of October. The second leg will be played on 1 November in Cairo.
