Mamelodi Sundowns were not clinical enough despite Cape Town City victory - Mngqithi

Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has admitted they were not clinical enough despite defeating Cape Town City 2-0 in their Premier Soccer League (PSL) season opener on Friday.

After a 0-0 score in the first half, the Brazilians turned on the heat in the second period to score in a space of two minutes courtesy of Aubrey Modiba and Themba Zwane at the DHL Stadium.

What did Mngqithi say?

"I think the game was won on intensity, if you check our high presses and our counter-presses I think first-half we had nine successful high presses," Mngqithi told SuperSport after the game.

"Probably lacking on the shots at goal, I think we only had one from those very successful high presses but our counter-presses - very good.

"The game was very close, possession we wanted to dominate the field and to dominate the ball, that's what we did. Creating chances, we created a lot of scoring opportunities but we were not clinical enough."

'Sundowns lost control of the game'

Mngqithi has further revealed his side lost control of the game after they scored the second goal and was at one time tempted to bring on Andile Jali for stability.

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"And I do think after we scored the second goal we lost control of the game, the game too transitional and we were never really stable on the ball," Mngqithi continued.

"At one point one felt, 'Hey, maybe we should have brought an 'AJ' [Andile Jali] just to control the game' but hindsight is always the best sight.

"Because the way they were coming we felt we also wanted to impose with our intensity, with Mothobi [Mvala] and the rest of the guys that we brought in.

"But honestly speaking it was a very good spectacle of football and very good work from our team considering that this was our first match."

'Sundowns worked very hard'

Mngqithi was, however, left satisfied with the outcome from the season opener insisting his side worked very hard to grind out victory.

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"The numbers are saying we worked very hard and statistically you would not expect to have so much in terms of the passes that we had," added Mngqithi.

"I think we had more than 407 passes in this game, we had maybe 59 percent possession, the shots at goal and chances we created were sufficient for us to win the match.

"We always know it's gonna be a tight game, we knew it can be broken down with a set-piece and fortunately Aubrey scored the set-piece."

Sundowns will next face TS Galaxy in their second fixture of the season at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.