Rulani confident Sundowns can turn tables on Petro in return leg

Rulani Mokwena is confident that Mamelodi Sundowns will beat Petro de Luanda and advance to the next stage in the Caf Champions League.

Sundowns suffered their first loss in the competition on Saturday evening when they were beaten 2-1 in the first leg of their quarter finals fixture.

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“First let me congratulate the opposition. They were clearly the better side in the first half. Petro put us under pressure, particularly after a great start for us where we scored from exactly what we had prepared,” said Mokwena after the match. 

“But after we started well, they grew into the game and showed they are at home. Their quick equaliser after we had scored galvanised their supporters and you could see the energy gave them a bit of a boost. 

“And although we suffered a little bit for 30 minutes after that, we really didn’t look like we would concede. So, we are very disappointed that we conceded a second goal just before half time. 

“But like we said at half time to the players, we had done the hard part which was to score an away goal. And the most important thing was to try and win the second half, which we thought we played better in.” 

Sundowns had a goal which would have been an equaliser and a huge boost disallowed in the dying minutes of the match at November 11 Stadium in Luanda. 

It was ruled by VAR that Sundowns had fouled a Petro player when they dispossessed him the ball which ended in Neo Maema’s path and he scored.  

“We were a little unfortunate with the equalising goal because of the VAR. But we are okay to go to Johannesburg with a 2-1 scoreline. We take the away goal and we can definitely score, and I think Petro also knows that there is a goal (awaiting them) in Pretoria.

“I don’t want to talk about the refereeing decisions today because we had VAR and if there were any lack of clarity in an incident, I am sure VAR would have brought the incident back, reviewed it and given a directive to the officials.”