Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rhulani Mokwena was happy that they have finally added the MTN8 title to their trophy cabinet.
Thapelo Morena handed Sundowns the lead midway through the first stanza, only for Fagrie Lakay to net the equalizer for City in the last quarter of an hour, but Sundowns prevailed in the dramatic penalty shoot-out thanks to heroics by goalkeeper Denis Onyango.
“Don’t we like to make it difficult? But credit to Cape Town City, they’re a very good side, they keep fighting, you’ve seen throughout the season, the games are never over until they are over for them you know,” Mokwena told SuperSport after the game.
“And they’ve always got the possibilities of scoring but when you leave the game open for so long and you create so many chances and you don’t put them to bed, that becomes lesson number one.
“Lesson number two is we’re not a very good side without the ball and in certain moments in the second-half we were very naive, we didn’t look after the ball and then they gained momentum,” he said.
“And they are a very good side when they have possession, so we spoke to them at the end of the game going into extra-time to say, ‘We’ve got to look after the ball a little bit better, we’ve got to play the game a little bit better, so that we can get something that gives us the opportunity to win it’. But credit to Cape Town City, they’re a top side, with a top coach and with very good players, it was not easy.”
In his final response on the tough one penalty shootout, “Nah difficult [penalty shootouts ] but congratulations to Mamelodi Sundowns, we’ve delivered the one that’s been missing in the cabinet, now we focus on the lessons that we take out.
“There’s a lot of lessons to be taken, a lot of work to be done, so we can still look to improve, it’s a long season ahead. We have a very difficult game on Wednesday, so for now recover, recuperate, travel back to Johannesburg and make sure we’re ready and fresh to fight for three points on Wednesday, it’s gonna be very difficult,” he added.