Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has described their trip to Qatar as a great success and they came back better equipped.

Mokwena, along with Manqoba Mngqithi, Steve Komphela and the rest of the technical staff, enjoyed some high-profile matches during the ongoing Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

Part of their trip to Qatar was to equip the Sundowns technical team with knowledge by watching different tactics employed by different coaches at the highest level.

And Mokwena, who was seen on his social media with a notepad at some of the matches, said they learnt a lot and will implement some of the things when the DStv Premiership resumes later this month.

“We must thank the club, the board and the Motsepe family for the privilege that they showed us to send us on the trip and give us an opportunity to just not witness history being made, but also learn from some of the best coaches and some of the best football players with different countries and different playing concepts in the world,” Mokwena told the club media department.

“We got an opportunity to watch 17 games in five days, which is something that was difficult to do in attending four matches a day. But it is something that I and the rest of the technical team, coaches Manqoba and Steve and others, were able to do even though it was very difficult.

“But we were able to get it done and as difficult as it was ... a lot of travelling, a lot of walking long distances because we were trying to win over time between the games.

“But we managed to do it by encouraging each other through the days and it also gave us an opportunity to build our own chemistry which helps to formulate the dynamics and know each other better off the pitch.

“From the educational perspective, it was very good. We met the coach of the USA [Gregg Berhalter], and we were privileged enough to experience this thing, and also thanks to [Downs' sporting director] Flemming Berg for organising these things using his contacts to be able to help us meet some of the coaches. To summarise the trip, it was a great success."

Mokwena also praised Senegal for reaching the next round. “It is going to be difficult in the knockout against England and at the moment for me, there are no surprises,” he said.