ICYMI: Why Sundowns coach Mokwena received surprise red card

Sundowns recorded their first-ever win over Al Ahly in Egypt when they did just enough to overcome Pitso Mosimane’s side 1-0 in an entertaining Caf Champions League Group A encounter on Saturday night.

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Thapelo Morena came off to the bench to score the winning goal in what turned out to be a stunning result for the runaway leaders in the DStv Premiership.

However, one of the big talking points was the decision to ‘send off’ Mngqithi after clashing with officials.

“To be honest we were not fighting with the referees as such,” Mngqithi explained after the match, as quoted by Phakaaathi. “But the referee presumed that our goalkeeper (Kennedy Mweene) was wasting time. 

“The truth was that he was fouled and we tried to clear the ball out so he could get attention. But they did not allow the ball out and continued to play when they could see the goalkeeper was down. We were not faking it, we were not trying to waste time. We hardly do that.

“And that is basically what made us talk to try and tell them that we are not trying to waste time but are rather concerned that our keeper was injured.

“With the refereeing, you never want to say whether you are happy with it or not.  But the truth is that they are also human beings and they make mistakes sometimes. We have to accept when they have made mistakes and forgive because it is the nature of the game of football… Today it might favour you, tomorrow it might favour someone else. They are human beings and we don’t want to kill that human factor in football,” Mngqithi added.

Mamelodi Sundowns continue to go from strength to strength

For Mosimane, it was just the third time he was facing his former employers since he left Masandawana in September 2020.

After the match, Mngqithi also graciously acknowledged such a result would not have been possible if not for the foundations previously laid by Mosimane.

“Winning in Cairo was always our plan, we really wanted to win, even last year, in fact, I think the performance last year was stronger than the performance this year. We had many injuries this year and worried in many areas,” he commented, as quoted by iDiski Times.

“We knew the strength of Ahly and we lost a reasonable amount of starting players, from Dennis Onyango to Mosa Lebusa who scored at home, we lost [Erwin] Saavedra, we lost two of our strikers in one week at home, which is Gift Motupa and Pavol Šafranko.

“Otherwise, we’re very excited to have won in Cairo but one must also say, it’s a win for coach Pitso, he’s laid the foundation at this club, he’s put his foot forward and he always says this team still plays his football. So if Ahly lose and he won, it means he still won.”

Notably, Sundowns have now moved comfortably to the top of Group A with seven points from three games.

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