Mngqithi confident of reaching MTN8 final despite Stellies defeat

Mamelodi Sundowns will not go down without a fight if Manqoba Mngqithi’s post match press conference is anything to go by.

The 1-0 defeat to Stellenbosch FC in the first leg of the MTN8 on Wednesday night at Lucas Moripe Stadium has done nothing to dampen Mngqithi’s spirit.

The Brazilians have an uphill climb to reverse the scoreline in the second leg that is scheduled to be played at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday.

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Failure to reach the final of the top eight competition will not go down well with the hard-to-please Masandawana faithful.

“The most important thing is to prepare for the match against Stellenbosch and overcome the 1-0 goal deficit. I think the team we have has the capacity to do that, but we must just start well. I think we’ll also be playing on a very good pitch which I think will add to the quality of football that can be expected,” said an undeterred Mngqithi.

Questions were raised about Themba Zwane’s late introduction in the game. The evergreen Sundowns maestro looked lively when he came on and there are calls already from him to be installed back into the starting 11.

“I think I will be getting ahead of myself if I already start thinking about the line-up when we still have so many training sessions because the strategy will obviously have to be different,” Mngqithi responded when asked if he’s tempted to start with Zwane from the onset.  

“It’s a game where one goal is not enough and I believe that we will be a completely different team. Sometimes we need results like this if you still have a second chance because when you’ve been doing well in matches and friendlies, sometimes it creates an impression that you’ve got an entitlement to the results.

“Immediately, after we conceded, you started to see a completely different team. You could see that we now want to get a goal and we were playing but you don’t want these moments to start by you conceding first.”

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Ronwen Williams is expected to be fit for the game and take his place in between the sticks with Jody February likely to be relegated to the bench in favour of the Bafana Bafana captain.