Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena wasn’t completely happy with their 2-1 win over Coton Sport but praised his side for winning their CAF Champions League Group B unbeaten.
In what was dubbed as a Group of Death, Sundowns advanced to the quarter-finals alongside record 10-time champions Al Ahly, while Al Hilal were eliminated, despite amassing 10 points.
Mokwena handed several of their players who’ve been short of game-time this season an opportunity to impress with Sipho Mbule, Terrence Mashego, Riyaad Pieterse, Abdelmounaim Boutouil all starting while Abubeker Nassir came off the bench to score.
“Coton Sport put up a great fight, worked very hard to do their best to represent their people and their country, so congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns for qualifying for the quarter-finals,” Mokwena said in the post-match press conference.
“Congratulations to the players and the technical staff and everyone associated with the club, it was a good performance I thought, in most moments I was quite happy with a lot of the things we did on the pitch, one or two things I wasn’t happy about.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t keep a clean sheet but there were a lot of very good things I liked and even the individual performances, some of them, were very, very good, especially because some of the players hadn’t played for a very long time.
“But good, pleased with the result and pleased with the number of points from a very difficult group.”
Sundowns, who were crowned league champions without kicking a ball in the DStv Premiership on Saturday evening, will now await the draw on Wednesday, where they are the only representative of the COSAFA region in the last-eight of Africa’s elite club competition.
