Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena has reacted to his side’s draw against Al-Merrikh in Egypt.
Masandawana shared the spoils in a tight match with the Sudanese outfits Al-Merrikh after a goalless draw at the Al-Salam Stadium in Cairo.
Mokwena’s side retained their unbeaten record so far in group A and are three points ahead of Al Ahly, Al Hilal and Al-Merrikh.
The Sundowns co coach says they dominated the first half proceedings and should have taken advantage. However he says they struggled at times in the second half after their opponents changed their tactics.
“I suppose a game of two halves,” Mokwena said in the post match press conference.
“In the first half, I think we played exceptionally well, extremely dominant, played to create a lot of chances, and I had six big, big, big chances. And they created two opportunities from our carelessness on the ball, and they caught us on on the counter attack.
“The one that Brian Onyango cleared off the line was was a big chance, but came from our situation in having a set piece and turning over the ball. And then the second chance even towards the end, we turned over the ball and they created something from that.
“But to be honest, very stable, too much control, and we didn’t feel like we were in trouble for most parts of the second half. I think tactically also, we were very, very good.”
Mokwena says Al-Merrikh, who have not been very active this year, made a few changes from how they had analysed them.
“They changed the system a lot, made a couple of changes with the personnel also, and when we were expecting, particularly a player like Hamid, who is the number 10 and probably the most important player for them in what we’ve analysed, particularly in in the games against Express and against Zanaco, and they overloaded the midfield.
“But today they went to the back three, and they employed wing backs that were very, very aggressive. But a 3-4-3 sort of formation with very aggressive wingers that came onto the sides to try and create two v one situations on our fullbacks.
“But we dealt very well with that and we had a lot of space in the midfield and we were very dominant, and when when a player like Al-Gozoli comes in and tries to press our fullbacks, then we know that our central midfield is free, but when they come and press our central midfielders, we knew that we could utilise the fullbacks better.
“But second half, they made a couple of changes, also they they brought in the number eight to have an extra man in the midfield, which helped them a bit, and they took off the extra defender.
“And when they took off the extra defender and they reinforced the midfield, we found it very difficult then to get the free man in the midfield. And then that overload created possibilities for us to now to be forced to play over the midfield line. And when you play over the midfield line with center halves that are six foot eight, six foot nine, you know that your possibilities of winning the first ball, you don’t necessarily stand too much of a chance.
“And then you’ve got to pick up second balls, but at times we were not compact enough to be able to pick up the second ball and then to keep the momentum in and around the box.
“But ja, that’s how football works. And there’s no point in crying over spilt milk. It was just unfortunate that the Saavedra injury also forced us to change the structure a little bit of our attack, that also compromised our high press a bit but okay Kutumela came on and did his best to try and help the team.
“But ja, as I was saying not so good in the second half but a performance in the first half that we can build on.”
Sundowns will now stay in Egypt to play Pitso Mosimane’s Al Ahly in their next game.
