“Cape Town City play the best football in the league” according to Manqoba Mngqithi
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised Cape Town City and their manager, Eric Tinkler.
It’s not common for a coach to celebrate a 3-0 victory and immediately commend the opposition, but that’s exactly what Mngqithi did at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday evening.
As the defending Betway Premiership champions aimed to keep up with league leaders Orlando Pirates, Sundowns scored two goals in the first half, thanks to Peter Shalulile and Lucas Costa Ribeiro.
Shalulile then added another goal after the break, making it a convincing win just before the match’s final half.
City managed to halt Sundowns’ goal spree but faced another setback when Aprocius Petrus received a red card in the 80th minute, leaving them with ten players.
Statistics indicated Sundowns’ dominance, with nine shots compared to City’s three and a 57% share of possession.
Mngqithi offered high praise, stating, “First I must commend the good work that Eric is doing at Cape Town City. I think he is one of the lessons about the positive stories that one sees as a coach. I think he has introduced a lot of youngsters who are really doing very well. And his team plays, in my opinion, the best football in the league.”
He added that City displayed impressive speed of play, ball movement, and mobility.
“Because sometimes when you did not win, it looks like you did not do anything. But the truth is, I think they are playing some of the best football and I like to watch their team and I think I watched five of their matches because they were exciting to watch, I must say.”
On the performance of his own team, Mngqithi was more measured in his praise.
“I think our build-ups were spot on. We created good opportunities from most of those situations. And it was pleasing to see the team giving a reaction like this, because that’s what we expected. In as much as we scored three, and I’m happy with three, but I still maintain that I think we could have scored more. And when I look at the chances that we got, I think we could have done even better. But nonetheless, one should appreciate the fact that from a defeat we managed to win against what I believe is one of the best teams in the league.”
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