Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said his side deserved to leave Kinshasa with three points after their thrilling late comeback 2-1 win over AS Maniema Union.
Sundowns were starring at back-to-back defeats in Group B after losing to Raja AC last week and going into the final 10 minutes 1-0 down at the Stade de Martyrs on Saturday.
But second-half substitute Peter Shalulile netted an 83rd-minute equaliser and forced a 96th-minute own goal to secure a crucial three points which completely changed the outlook of the group going into the final fixture against ASFAR at Loftus Versfeld next week.
“I think we were highly penalised by the score at half-time, it’s difficult to play here and it’s obvious by the results Maniema [achieve], they don’t suffer many goals here, it’s a team that you can have possession against but they always find a way out the press due to the direct style of football,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to cope with that, but we played our style that we create our own moments, we did that and if we analysed what we did in the first half, it was important to keep the emotions and try and increase the level of pace inside the pitch, in terms of players in front, creating moments [for scoring].
“We broke our way of playing a bit because we were not connecting in the first half and a bit in the second half, but we were more dangerous later. Not always by the right way of playing but by the right intentions and the right spirit, we fought and were rewarded.
“We were clearly the better team and we deserved to win with the work our boys did in the full period of the match.”
Sundowns will host the Botola Pro side on Sunday afternoon in Tshwane.
