Mosimane seeks precision

Missed chances around the box cost Sundowns in Champions League clash

PITSO MOSIMANE is in no doubt Mamelodi Sundowns will reach the group stages of the Caf Champions League for a fourth successive season, despite their being held goalless by Al Ahly Benghazi at the weekend.

The Brazilians took on the Libyan champions in neutral Cairo, given the unrest in their country, and with no goals in the first leg, the tie to decide which team goes through to the lucrative round robin phase of the continent’s premier club competition is pretty open.

But Jingles, a Champions League champion and veteran was not overly perturbed by his side’s failure to get the away goal.

“We can seal it at home,” Mosimane said after the match.

Should they do that, Sundowns will extend the record of the most successive Champions League round robin stage appearances by a South African side to four.

And now that they will be playing at home (Loftus Versfeld) and likely to have the likes of Denis Onyango, Themba Zwane and Ricardo Nascimento who all missed the first leg due to injury, Sundowns will fancy their chances of victory.

Not that the absence of the trio was too influential on the result in Cairo.

“We have the team (to compete),” Mosimane said. “We can’t be complaining about injuries. Football is a professional sport with injuries. We never showed them an opportunity to score. We have a few injuries, but we shouldn’t use that as an excuse. We had enough ammunition to win. I am happy with Phaka (Phakamani Mahlambi), he played well. He is coming up slowly. JB (Jeremy Brockie) is working hard, helping him (Mahlambi). We just need to work on our finishing. I think that we will win at home.”

Mosimane, pictured, didn’t return with Sundowns, but flew to Morroco yesterday and went straight to class in his studies towards a CAF Pro License. He will spend three days in Morocco before returning home to try and finish off Al-Ahly, and book a place in the group stage.

“I think that we started very well (in the first leg),” Mosimane said. “We just suffered from the usual problems, not taking the chances that we got. Lebo (Maboe) got a chance in the first five minutes and the ball fell on his left foot. I think he could have done better to finish that move. We had a few balls inside the box that we didn’t connect well with. But the most important moments came when we had the ball on the edge of their box and we were trying to pass to our strikers. But we were passing the ball too long or too short to our strikers, not precise enough.

Mosimane continued, “We had the chances. But we aren’t unhappy with the performance, we’re just not happy with the result. I think that we can do better at home. We can seal it at home. The defence played well. We were not really under threat. It was a good game that we controlled but we didn’t kill the game like we should have.”