Mamelodi Sundowns fell at the quarter-finals stage of the CAF Champions League after a 1-1 draw with Petroléos de Luanda at the FNB Stadium.
The Tshwane giants missed out on the opportunity to qualify for a semi-final spot in the African championships with a 2-3 aggregate score when they faced Petro in the second leg of the quarters. Masandawana were excellent in the opening period and established a commanding first half, however missed chances to capitalize on the scoring opportunities they created. Bafana Ba Style’s Co-Coach Manqoba Mngqithi expressed his disappointment of the encounter in the press conference meeting held after the match:
“First half we created (I think) nine chances, and we had two big chances but unfortunately when we did not take those chances maybe they came back to bite us. But I do believe we had a very good first half, unfortunate not to score enough in that moment.”
“In the second half we had a lot of things that were very unfortunate, the momentum of the game was killed by a whole lot of things: 1; The VAR decisions, I just feel that they took too long, I wouldn’t say they were right or wrong, but I just feel in a game it has an effect when you have too many stoppages and maybe four or five minutes in the issue of Denis and the handball, I think that’s a decision that can be taken very quickly. The second one was with the penalty, I think again it is something that took too long, [but] as to whether those decisions were right or wrong, to be honest at this stage I would not want to go there because to a certain extent I do believe most of the decisions were very good, but unfortunately because the momentum was broken down a lot. The second half became very ugly let’s be honest, it was an ugly game of football.”
The Brazilians took the lead almost immediately after the restart thanks to Brian Onyango’s strike in the second half period, and an equalizer by Tiago Azulão for Luanda as they held on during a frantic period.
“We ended up forcing a lot of balls and the game became very uncontrollable, but nonetheless I am very proud of the boys. [We are] unfortunate that we did not qualify to the semi-finals, but I think the boys gave a good account of themselves, and it’s probably us as the leadership that will have to take the bullet and say maybe we need to plan and do better in the next coming matches and make sure that we improve in this space because seemingly we are not achieving our ultimate goals.” Said Coach Manqoba.
“We were playing a very good team, one must not take that away from them, but the number of chances that we created do suggest that we dominated the game. We could have easily scored two or three goals in the first fifteen minutes, we created very good chances, but unfortunately when you don’t take those early chances in the match and as the game progresses you start getting anxious. I would give them credit because they’ve gone through, but I wouldn’t really think that their organization made it very difficult for us to penetrate and create clear cut opportunities which I believe we created.”
Throughout the encounter Masandawana pressed forward and the rest of the second half saw continued pressure with very little fightback from Petro, half chances were created with the finishing being the let down of the night. The Brazilians coach applauded his side for their fighting spirit.
“I think we can take the blame on ourselves because we had chances and opportunities to capitalize on some of the challenges they had, based on the profile that we saw of them, but I don’t want to run away from the fact that we were playing against a very good team and they are not just push overs. I still believe that our team was the better team on the day, but unfortunately that does not count when you did not put balls into the net. In the Champions League, unlike in the PSL, you make one or two stupid mistakes you get punished, the goals we conceded that side [away] were all very bad goals.”
Sundowns will now turn their focus back to domestic league competition, on Wednesday they will host Cape Town City in the DStv Premiership at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
Hard to the boys and our technical team at large.
Sometimes it’s best to listen to fans. We told you to rest Onyango and put in Mwene you didn’t listen.
The ruthlessness you had when you started is gone and this thing of not man marking is costing us….. It’s the same done Bafana Bafana, instead of marking an opponent our players run beside the opponent. Slide and take the bloody ball!!!!!
Well done soldiers, I don’t want to blame you much, you’ve tried your best, we believe you will rectify those small mistakes and again you’ve learn for a team to qualify win the 1st leg and invest and say we will win at home…. This is not the 1st time so I believe you’ve learn…. Any thanks for fighting for us and put us in a map…
Technical team must take a blame for undermining petro and playing onyango ang lebusa instead of December rushing and Mweene in the first leg.this thing of rewarding off form players due to the past glory must stop On yang has conceded more goals than all Goalkeeper ‘s at Downs this season .he must sit out all remaining games to see his mistake and regroup.Technical team is defending him .They don’t lessons to us owners of this club .we love him but we can see when is off form
Its official after today’s results Downs are Dstv Champs without playing the league for nearly two weeks,ya its sad we are out of the Champs league but our coaches need to be praised for the good job they’re doing even though some are keep on saying they must go and I wonder who doesn’t have mistakes on this world.
Ngeke saphela Amandla even next season we are going back to Champs league and try to do better than this season koze kulunge akulahlwa mbeleko ngakufelwa,you fall and rise and in life you don’t throw the towel.
To those who wants our Wisemen to go you are free to cross the floor,teams like Sekhukhune,Arrows needs supporters thina we will keep being patient until it come right.If Chiefs and Pirates except the latter for winning just one trophy (Mtn trophy)our big rivals stays more than seven years without silverware what will prevent us from being patient till we win the elusive Champs league.Kby forever
Muzi Kunene I concur & agree with you, sometimes we r so used to seeing Sundowns winning in such a way that we forget that they r somewhere deserve to lose.We cannot expect the management to end the contract of our coaches because we lost a single game.What about other projects?Can we employ a new person who’s going to kill the philosophy of the club?To b honest the VAR team turned down 3 possible goals of Petro de Luanda as opposed to only one of us that was scored by Maema.To be realistic those guys were better prepared than us both at home & away.Immeditely after we scored they were the most likely team to score&they did score the disallowed goal& the penalty followed very quickly after that.They were quick on transition,attack& very precise.In Luanda and at FNB Mvala was supposed to be on the starting lineup, and the coaches must know that the African players r not as nippy,lighter&faster than the PSL counterparts.Like in the quarter finals of last year the 3 coaches got it all wrong,but it’s not all gloom, there’s still the Nedbank to play for.Can we go all out &be treble champions.We still have trust on these coaches.
but this Rhulani guy will one day explode and people will see his true colours
the picture of Rhulani holding Lyle Lackay on both sides of his head with a nasty look makes me want to puke ,I really don’t like this Rhulani guy attitude and Sundowns looks like they are doing nothing to this boy .it is a pity I don’t have this picture but it very much annoying to look at it.