The loss reminds us that we are not invincible, says Sundowns’ Mokwena

Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed how he stepped out of his principles at half-time in the 2-1 loss against Petro Atletico in the Caf Champions League.

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Sundowns were trailing in the interval and that’s when Mokwena and his technical team considered the possibility of losing the match, but making sure that they don’t lose by a bigger margin.

“At Sundowns we play every match to win and we went there to try and win. I am reminded of something that Jurgen Klopp was said to me when I visited Liverpool and I never thought I would use it because I am a coach who wants to win every single match,” said Mokwena.

“In football you either win lose or draw, you have all those possibilities every time a match starts. Klopp said to me ‘If you want to succeed in football, lose the right matches’, and I think we lost the right match because it does not get us out of the competition and we still have a chance to correct the tie.

“The message at half-time was ‘don’t be stupid and don’t chase it but manage the second half as best as you can’. We told them that the next goal should be our goal and if it was not our goal then there should be no goal and we did that very well. We take the positives and the positives are that we scored a very important away goal. The score-line does not change anything because we would still have to go out and win the second leg,” Mokwena added.

The loss was Masandawana’s first in nine games across all competitions and their first in this season’s Champions League. The Downs mentor says this goes as far as reminding them that anyone is beatable.

“The loss gives us many lessons and reminds us that we are not invincible. We accept the lesson, in a very humble way, and we move on. Now what is left for us is to recover the team, bring back the bodies to good condition. We have to watch the game again and do the corrections then we prepare for the second leg. We will be in the semifinals.”