Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach, Manqoba Mngqithi, is happy with his side’s performance following a 2-2 draw against Belgium side, Gent.
Masandawana kicked off their first international match in Europe and Mngqithi says his side did well under circumstances.
“Today we were playing against KAA Gent Belgium, our first match in our preparation phase in the second cycle for preparation in Belgium,” the Sundowns coach told the club website.
“It was very important for us to come into an environment where we will not be played with any respect.
“People will come at us and we will have a go at them because that is what we encounter in the Champions League in the latter stages of the competition, teams do not have much respect for us.
“It was important from a technical perspective and probably from an intensity perspective to get matches that will demand us both offensively and defensively.”
Sundowns goals came from Rivaldo Coetzee and new signing Lucas Ribeiro Costa with Gift Orban netting a brace for the Belgians.
“I think Gent being the team that plays in that space of confederations Cup or what you will call conference League or Europa League, sometimes it is important to get a friendly like that and again to make it an ice breaker in a trip like this so that you can really test yourself,” adds Mngqithi.
“I think the boys really did well under the circumstances, it was 2-2, but if you look at the quality of the goals that we scored, both of them were of the highest level. Rivaldo’s cracker and Lucas on his debut in a friendly match scoring such a beautiful goal.”
“The goals that we conceded I’m a little bit unhappy with because again they are just our elementary mistakes and it’s an area that we must really work very hard to improve because we end up drawing matches that we should have won.
“When you have scored two goals away from home there’s no expectation that you should not win that match.
“There are however a lot of other decisions that I’m not too sure about. We still have to check the video, there was a goal by Peter [Shalulile] and I thought it was a very good goal but it was judged offside.”