Stade Malien coach Mauril Njoya says his side’s defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg of their quarter-final clash had nothing to do with the fact that they were facing former champions.
Malien were humbled 3-0 by the 2016 champions in Pretoria on Friday, leaving them with a mountain to climb in the second leg at home in a week’s time.
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Njoya’s charges topped Group D that included ES Tunis, Petro de Luanda and Simba SC with 11 points and having the best defense record in the pool.
Njoya said the fact that his side was able to get four points from an experienced Tunis in the group campaign speaks volume, hence there shouldn’t be comparisons with the Sundowns match as the latter was just a bad day at the office.
“If you remember we were in the same group as Esperance De Tunis and Esperance played at the Club World Cup,” said Njoya.
“But we drew in Tunisia and we won at home. So meaning that I couldn’t say it’s just experience because Esperance is a very experienced team, they’ve won the Champions League.
“So today was just not our day. It just happens, sometimes it happens in football.”
The coach admitted he needs to re-watch the game to plan a better approach for the second leg and also maintained some humour in the face of defeat.
“First of all I have to watch the game again and see what happened,” added the Cameroonian.
“Then after watching the game we come with a game plan but what I can say as just a joke is that I had two dreams.
“The first one I wanted to visit South Africa, the second one to go to heaven. What I’ll say is that I have accomplished one and of course I wanted to go far in the competition and maybe win the completion.
“But now we are going to make sure that our boys don’t play with pressure but we are going to make sure that they know the difference in Bamako.”
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