World Soccer

Sundowns coach confident of reaching Champions League semis

Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies coach Jerry Tshabalala believes his team has what it takes to go all the way in the CAF Women’s Champions League.

Banyana Ba Style, who are the defending champions of the competition having won it last year, lost 1-0 to FC Masar of Egypt in their first match, but they bounced back in style on Wednesday, hammering CBE 4-0 to keep their hopes of reaching the semifinals alive.

A brace from Melinda Kgadiete and a goal each for Boitumelo Rabale and Lelona Daweti earned Sundowns a comfortable win over the Ethiopian side.

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Despite his team scoring four goals in the match, Tshabalala was not happy with his team’s finishing saying they could have scored more.

”It was important for us to bounce back strongly. We started the tournament on a negative note, so we needed to redeem ourselves today and credit the girls for the performance. As much as we scored about four goals, there are still a few things that I believe I am not happy with, I think we should have scored more than four goals in this match. I still believe there’s room for improvement in the team,” said Tshabalala.

”First game was very difficult, I think we should have wrapped it up in the first half and we didn’t do that. But we are a strong team and believe we will go to the semi-final, and for us to be champions we want to beat everyone, it doesn’t matter which team, we have got to beat all the teams that are here in the tournament,” added Tshabalala.    

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Sundowns are currently third in Group B with three points, one point behind joint leaders Edo Queens and FC Masar, who played to a goalless draw in the other Group B match on Wednesday. CBE are last with no points.

They next face Edo Queens while FC Masar will play bottom-placed and winless CBE in the final group matches.

The top two teams will qualify for the semifinals of the CAF Women’s Champions League.

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By Khaya Ndubane