Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has acknowledged that his team’s failure to score in the first leg of their MTN8 semifinal against Stellenbosch FC played a significant role in their elimination.

Sundowns suffered a 2-0 aggregate defeat to Stellenbosch, with the visitors’ 1-0 victory at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday in the second leg sealing their place in the final.

The loss marks a disappointing end to the tournament for Sundowns, who have struggled to find the net throughout the competition, scoring just one goal which was also an own goal against Polokwane City in the extra time of the quarter final.

Now, Stellies will face defending champions Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 final on 5 October at the venue that will be announced by the PSL in the next coming days. 

“To be honest, I wouldn’t say so,” said Mngqithi at the press conference when he was asked if they lost in the first leg for not scoring a goal. 

“But I think (not scoring in the first leg), I think it played to their advantage because they are counterattacking team, they are stronger on transition, they were already had a goal and you had to come at them and open up.  

“We knew that we had to play a very patient game, because they have also played a lot of matches in a very short space of time and we also knew that the second half maybe the legs can go and try to capitalise on that.  

“We wanted to make sure that we try to get an early goal and unfortunately, again, we had a very poor start and we only recovered probably about after 20 minutes to try to impose ourselves. 

“But unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.”  

The defeat to Stellenbosch marks the first time Sundowns have been eliminated from the MTN8 semifinals since the 2022/23 season to Pirates. Following that loss, changes were made to the coaching staff, with Rulani Mokwena taking over as head coach who left at the end of last season.

Mokwena guided Sundowns to the final where they lost to the very same Pirates on penalties.

It remains to be seen if further changes will be made to the Sundowns coaching setup following this disappointment, which led to Mngqithi to apologise to the club’s fans.