Jerry Tshabalala, Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies’ coach, has expressed sadness following his team’s stunning defeat to Nigeria’s Edo Queens in the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Sundowns defeated 2-1 to Edo Queens, with the debutants coming from behind to eliminate the defending champions in their Group B match.
The two-time Champions League winners needed to win to qualify for the semis while a draw would have been enough for Edo Queens.
It was the South Africans who took a 24th minute lead through Melinda Kgadiete.
But goals from Peace Essien and Mary Mamudu in the 95th and 90+11 minutes, sealed a dramatic turnaround for the Nigerian league champions.
Speaking on his team’s painful defeat, Tshabalala says they didn’t show any hunger in this year’s tournament hence their early exit.
“To be honest, I don’t think we showed any hunger to say we want this more,” he said. “If you come to the tournament and you start on a negative it becomes difficult to bounce back, but we tried to show character to bounce back in the second game. In the third game it wasn’t to be, the players gave it their all but we didn’t defend nicely as a team.”
Tshabalala refrained from scolding his players openly, but chose to instead to say it just wasn’t their day.
“I don’t want to bash my girls, they gave their all – it wasn’t to be. Even with the penalty Andile did well to save the penalty. It wasn’t to be for us.”
“A disappointing performance from the team. But in the first half we executed the plan very well, we crossed them very high and didn’t allow them space. I think in the last 10 minutes of the first half, we removed the foot off the pedal.
Second half I spoke to the girls and said – don’t try to lose the ball as much as possible and the only way to do that is to play close to each other. I don’t think we created a lot of goal scoring opportunities but it was an intense game.”
For the first time in four years, Sundowns Ladies will not contest the final of the tournament they won twice, in 2021 and 2023, and grabbing silver in 2022.
They finished third in Group B with three points while Edo Queens on seven points topped the group
Debutant FC Masar of Egypt, who also finished on seven points, placed second and Ethiopia’s CBE was bottom with no point.
The semi-final pairing will Edo Queens face off with TP Mazembe of DR Congo, and AS FAR will take on FC Masar. Both matches will be played on Tuesday.
