Itumeleng Duiker © Backpagepix

The Leopards outfit managed to get 2 valuable away goals in their last encounter against the Sudanese side when they went down 3-2 in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup in Khartoum.

The 27-year old stated that his side are fully focused heading into the 2nd leg.

"We don't want to go out now and miss the group stages, especially not after such a strong showing in the knockout stages, so we are going into the game extremely motivated and ready," he told PSL.co.za.

"We don't want to make it an exciting and close game. We want to take the lead early and finish it early. They might try and play us on the counter, but an early goal will open them up at the back."

The former Golden Arrows man believes the visitors will defend deep and invite pressure, and that Lidoda Duvha cannot afford to be profligate in front of goal.

"That is at least how I expect them to play as they are away from home but we will see," he added. "I would be surprised if they are the more active of the two sides.

"It depends on how you approach teams from Africa. We're naturally going to have more of the possession and it is important to be clinical with the few chances we will create against a team that sits so deep and try to defend the lead.

"The difficult thing will be not to be caught on the counterattack and we have to be careful on set pieces as well."

Though the Limpopo based side successfully navigated the gruelling knockout stages against the likes Warri Wolves, St Eloi Lupopo and Motor Action the Leopards man believes there is still room for improvement.

"Results wise we have held our own against all these tough African teams but there are still things we can improve on from an individual perspective which we are hoping to see in our game against Al-Merreikh," he added.

The game in Ellis Park kicks off at 15h00 on Saturday.