Mamelodi Sundowns coach Mngqithi on Petro de Luanda defeat: 70% of the team didn’t perform

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi feels that his side were good enough to triumph against Petro de Luanda in the Caf Champions League, but let themselves down on the night.

Had Downs been more clinical, and had some more of the match official decisions and VAR calls over the two legs gone their way, they may well have booked their spot in the semi-finals.

But the margins are fine in Africa’s top-tier club competition and knowing how close his side came, only makes the pain greater for Mngqithi.

“It’s hurting too much, I don’t want to lie,” he told the media after the match, as quoted by iDiskiTimes.

“What is very unfortunate is I still believe our team was a better team on the day, but that doesn’t count when you did not put balls into the net.

“In the Champions League, unlike the PSL – if you make one or two stupid mistakes, you can be punished. The goals we conceded that side [in Angola] were all very bad goals from crosses,” the Downs mentor continued.

“It hurts because you know that your team is better than what it delivered, especially in the first leg. Probably 70% of the team didn’t perform to their full potential. But today I wouldn’t falter many, I would say we didn’t take our chances, and we got punished.”

While the South African side squandered numerous opportunities, including a Themba Zwane penalty which hit the post, it was a lapse of concentration at the back that ultimately proved their undoing.

“Even how they scored, we slipped in one big moment when the keeper is throwing the ball and from there it’s an opportunity and for me, that was very bad,” Mngqithi said.

“It was a lapse of concentration but I don’t really blame the players that much, I think we did a whole lot of good things in this match – but in football, you win some, you lose some.”