Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane wasn’t entirely pleased with his team despite hammering Congo’s AS Otoho 4-0 to advance to the penultimate round of qualifying before the group stage of the Caf Champions League.
Th Brazilians recovered from their 2-1 loss in the first leg to win the tie 5-2 thanks to their dominant display at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday.
Sundowns will now take on the Seychelles’ Cote d’or in September with a place in the group stage up for grabs.
Sundowns’ win underpinned what has worked well for the club in the Champions League in the last four years – not only winning, but scoring plenty of goals at home.
The secret to a good run in the Champions League is winning your home games and scoring away. Sundowns have done that well in recent years.
“We can’t be fooled by free flowing and pretty football,” Mosimane said.
“Big teams like Barca and Manchester City take the game to goal number five, six, seven and eight if they can.
“But we focus on enjoying ourselves, and not killing the game.
“It was a game where we needed the players who haven’t been scoring to score, and if you have been scoring, it was an opportunity to increase your numbers.
“That’s why I am not happy. I don’t think that my two centre-backs played very well in the second half.
“We were lax a bit in the second half, but I understand why. The resistance wasn’t very good, so the concentration levels went down.
“I need games like this, so that I can show them that they aren’t yet at the level they should be. They shouldn’t be fooled by this game.”
Despite dropping points against Cape Town City and Chippa United in the PSL, Sundowns have started the season well by advancing to the next qualifying round of the Champions League and semi-finals of the MTN8 where they will take on SuperSport United over two legs.
Mosimane, however, still has unfinished business as he is looking to land two big-name players before the close of the transfer window at the end of the month.
One of those big-name players is Kaizer Chiefs’ Khama Billiat.
The Zimbabwean’s future has been the subject of much speculation during the transfer window.
— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) August 25, 2019
Sundowns have said that they are looking to bring him back to the club.
That didn’t go down well with Amakhosi who issued a stinging statement, saying that they are considering taking action against Sundowns.
Mosimane has distanced himself from the process after his clash with City boss John Comitis during Sundowns’ pursuit of Aubrey Ngoma.
“We want the players that we want,” Mosimane said. “Those players we want, we think that they will make a difference.
“We don’t want players just because we just want to sign players. We’ve got enough players.
“There are two signings that we want to make. They would take us to another level. We need players who will give competition to the players in the starting XI.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sundowns?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sundowns #CAFCL pic.twitter.com/CQzuMNrRrS
— Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana)
“If they are not coming to do that, why bother signing them? To duplicate? To sign because the team has resources to sign?
“We don’t sign because the team has resources to sign. The team supports me when we have to sign, always!
“Sundowns was signing players before I arrived. There was never an issue. But can you put it together? That was the issue.”