Read more
Sundowns’ Mokwena – we had a lot of luck
'I think these things even themselves out,' added the Sundowns head coach.
Rulani Mokwena has admitted Sundowns were lucky against Yanga in their Champions League quarterfinals. Picture: Phakamisa Lensman/BackpagePix
Rulani Mokwena is not concerned with the noise surrounding the officiating in Mamelodi Sundowns’ last two games against Young Africans and Cape Town Spurs.
The Brazilians progressed to the semifinals of the Caf Champions League in controversial fashion following the 3-2 win on penalties over Yanga of Tanzania last Friday.
Sundowns recorded a narrow 1-0 over Spurs in the DStv Premiership on Tuesday night after Peter Shalulile won a penalty and Lucas Ribeiro scored from the resultant spot kick.
Yanga still feel aggrieved and claim that they were denied a legitimate goal while Spurs fans are also not happy with the penalty that was awarded to Sundowns as they felt the foul was outside the box.
“I just watched the games and in my opinion, the decisions were right and that is just my opinion because I’m not an official,” Mokwena said ahead of Friday’s Nedbank Cup quarterfinal clash against AmaTuks in the Tshwane derby.
“Of course, these are things that happen in football. We lost in the MTN8 final on the back of decisions that I thought were not fair on us but that is football.
“I think these things even themselves out. I think at the end of the day, you win some and you lose some. That is the nature of football and sport you can’t always be on the receiving end of the situation.”
Tuks challenge
Masandawana will play neighbours, the University of Pretoria at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium for a place in the semifinals. They were knocked out in this round of the of the lucrative cup competition last season by Stellenbosch FC.
“You guys laughed when one of the colleagues asked me what does it take to win the champions league and I said ‘you need a lot of luck,'” Mokwena continued.
“When I saw the incident against Yanga, I said we had a lot of luck as opposed to last season where we lost. We conceded the second goal and I thought we were extremely unlucky (against Wydad).
“I thought there was a push on Mothobi (Mvala) for the equaliser to make it 2-2 and we didn’t get the rub of the green if you’d like to call it that and this season I thought we had some very good fortunate moments.”
