A visibly frustrated SuperSport United coach, Eric Tinkler, slammed TP Mazembe for their disrespect in the second leg of the Caf Confederation Cup final.
The Ravens held Matsatsantsa a Pitori to a goalless draw at Lucas Moripe on Saturday to win 2-1 on aggregate and retain the trophy they won last year.
The finish of this match in Atteridgeville was heated as Mazembe cruised to victory, eating away at the clock whenever they could, much to the frustration of SuperSport who weren’t forceful enough to get the goal the needed.
Kabaso Chongo showed the SuperSport bench the middle finger as he left the pitch after his sending off with eight minutes to go.
This result means that Tinkler has finished on the losing side in a continental final for a third successive time having lost the 2013 Caf Champions League with Orlando Pirates as assistant coach and the 2015 Confederation Cup as head coach.
“The motivation to win a continental title is always there,” Tinkler said. “But also sometimes, certain things that happened today that I think are to the detriment of African football if I must be entirely honest. I think that we are moving in the wrong direction if we continue with it.
“But the motivation is there. I want to win things on the continent. Obviously there are things that are happening that makes one extremely despondent on a personal level. Today we weren’t shown respect.
“We are expected to show humility and respect when we go out of our country. People need to come to our country and show us the same humility and respect. They didn’t do that today.”
Referee Malang Diedhiou sends off Supersport United Thuso Phala during their CAF Confederations Cup second leg final against TP Mazembe. Photo: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
But SuperSport were their own worst enemy. They didn’t create enough chances to get the goal they needed to win the tie.
“I thought that they started better than us, definitely in the first 10-15 minutes (they were the better team),” Tinkler said. “They pressed us right from the beginning. I think that the players got caught a little bit by surprise.
"They had one or two very good chances in that first 10-15 minutes. But then I felt after that we started to settle. We started to then play and we started to look more of a threat going forward. But as I stated on the press conference a day before the match, it is about creating the opportunities to score. I don’t think that we really did that enough over the 90 minutes period.
“Yes, we had a couple of chances but unfortunately we didn’t put the ball in the back of the net. I felt that in that final third we didn’t produce enough quality to create those opportunities to obviously get that goal.”
Mazembe were elated with retaining this trophy to make up for their surprise elimination in the first round of the Champions League.
“I am very happy about the positive result,” Mazembe coach Pamphile Mihayo Kazembe said. “But it wasn’t easy to get this result. The opponents were very, very strong on the pitch.
“They wanted to play well and to score. They pushed us in the second half. We prepared the team for that. We defended as a block and looked to catch them on a counter-attack. I would like to congratulate my team. They played well and they were tactically good.”