After winning their third game in a row, Bafana Ba Style Co-Coach Rulani Mokoena had plenty of reasons to celebrate his side’s victory in the CAF Champions League. Masandawana showed professionalism and resilience as they controlled the game to earn three points in their second leg against Hilal, Couch Rulani praised his team’s great efforts after the game:
“Congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns for initially qualifying. We came into this match with 10 points, yesterday’s result allowed us to mathematically be in the knockouts and it’s not an easy game to play particularly when you know that you’ve qualified. It becomes more difficult particularly when you have to deal with the heat, the pitch and then you also have to play against a very good Al Hilal side that is trying to qualify.”
It was a great start between The Brazilians and The Blue Waves at the Al Hilal Stadium, and from the intensity they showed in the opening moments, the visitors were reduced to 10 players as Brian Onyango was shown the red card for foul play. Coach Rulani was pleased with his team’s work rate nonetheless:
“What made it even more difficult was having to play most of the match with one man down, this made the game very very difficult for our team, but instead of complaining we got on with the business, we showed respect for our badge and for our nation, and played the game the way it was supposed to be played.”
“What helped us win was the Players attitude, we just have a very good group of players and a very good group of players with good attitude. We knew that we had to deal with [Mohamed] Ouattara’s diagonal balls, [Ibrahim] Mustapha’s speed, Abdulrahman is always a threat in and around the box, [Abdul] Ajagun in between the lines is creative and creates a lot of possibilities for them to score but we were prepared and the players showed great spirit and great tactical discipline, all the credit goes to our players.”
The Brazilians have already qualified for the quarter finals and now have 13 points from five matches in Group A after a thrilling affair against the Sudanese.
Well done yellow Nation l am so pleased with Morena a lot improvement from his finishing massive respect boy
Congratulations and well done boys, you make us proud masabdawana, yellow nation. Please, may you kindly continue doing the same even in the DSTV premier soccer league please.
I would really love to applaud our technical team for a job well done in our last two champions league games,you really brought your A game in those games,if you can continue with this kind of master class planning,we are going to win all the competitions we involved with.It was very nice to see Pieterse in the posts,now is time to give Goss a chance,these two keepers should be in Bafana squad,the like of Veli are useless.It is time to play Mkuma,this is the right time to start preparing for next season.I was a bit concerned when Zwane was sacrificed after the red card and then realized we needed fresh legs and speed when we defend and attack and that helped us a lot.
Thanks Masandwana (players and Coaching staff) . I liked the way you deal with Al ahly and their mind testing .
Now please do not under estimate the work to be done both @CAF and DSTV .The quicker we get our 65 points from the remaining matches the better and I would enjoy if we can win the league before playing with Kaizer Chiefs and the have to give guard of honor .
how are injured guys .Is gift Motupa still nursing injury ?