Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has praised his team for their “excellent shift” in their 2-0 first-leg victory against Petro Atletico in Angola in the African Football League (AFL) quarter-final on Saturday.
The Tshwane giants scored twice in the second half through Marcelo Allende and Thapelo Maseko at the Estadio 11 de Novembro. Mokwena was impressed with how his troops shifted from their shock exit in the Carling Knockout Cup to TS Galaxy on Wednesday to comfortably beat Petro away from home three days later.
However, Rulani Mokwena has warned that the job is not yet done and that Sundowns will need to be at their best in the second leg in Pretoria to secure their place in the semi-finals of the newly formed AFL.
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“This is only halftime, and there is a second leg that’s still to come,” said Mokwena. “You have seen many things happen in football. You have seen teams come back from greater scorelines.
“We look forward to taking the scoreline to South Africa, but we approach it as 0-0 and a different ball game. “We beat a good side with good organisational forms, difficult to deal with the overloads they create. I gave you the [Petro’s] line-up in the pre-match press conference but we only had nine out of the 11 because one of the players was injured and one started on the bench.
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“They are a good team but I have to give compliments to our team for an excellent shift and tactically we were very good. The first half was not that good from us, we struggled. But it was a fantastic second half and incredible compliments to the group for adaptation and an incredible performance throughout.”
And with Petro having knocked Mamelodi Sundowns out of the CAF Champions League in the quarterfinals in 2022, Mokwena insisted that the AFL two-legged clash is not about revenge.
“I never use the word revenge and never does my heart have those types of intentions,” he added.
“I like to live life as an optimistic person with good energy and positivity, so the word revenge doesn’t exist because it comes from a dark place.”