Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi says credit must also go to Pitso Mosimane after their historic win over Al Ahly in Cairo on Saturday evening.
Sundowns beat Ahly in Egypt for the first time in six attempts, it was their first point(s) and first goal with Thapelo Morena late thunderbolt securing the victory in their Group A clash.
Mngqithi says it’s something they’ve actively been looking to achieve over the past few seasons and believe they played better on previous occasions and come home with nothing to show for it.
“We’ve always wanted to win and the last two matches we played against Ahly you can check the stats of those two matches – we dominated in every front, shots at goal, box entries, crosses, counter-presses, we were very dominant,” he said.
“The ball possession [too but] we were punished, we made silly mistakes and the goalkeeper made an error which gave them a big advantage going to South Africa.
“In South Africa, coach Pitso is a very clever coach, he decided to come with a very tall team because he knew we would be chasing the game and you’d bring your faster, more nippy players and very early they got a corner and scored.
“Most of our players were taken by surprise, but I believe we deserved to have done well in the last two matches – but they were more clinical, as you win some you lose some.”
He went on to add the Mosimane must be given credit too for the squad they have assembled over the years that inflicted Al Ahly’s first home defeat in the competition since 2016.
“Winning in Cairo was always our plan, we really wanted to win, even last year, in fact, I think the performance last year was stronger than the performance this year. We had many injuries this year and worried in many areas,” he continued.
“We knew the strength of Ahly and we lost a reasonable amount of starting players, from Dennis Onyango to Mosa Lebusa who scored at home, we lost [Erwin] Saavedra, we lost two of our strikers in one week at home, which is Gift Motupa and Pavol Šafranko.
“Otherwise, we’re very excited to have won in Cairo but one must also say, it’s a win for coach Pitso, he’s laid the foundation at this club, he’s put his foot forward and he always says this team still plays his football. So if Ahly lose and he won, it means he still won.”
Sundowns are now top of Group A with seven points from three games, three points ahead of second-placed Al-Merrikh.
