Downs exit Champions League despite 2-1 win
Disappointed Brazilians fall foul of away-goal rule after AS Vita score
MAMELODI Sundowns ran out of time in their bid to qualify for the African Champions League as they were eliminated from the competition on the away-goals rule after beating AS Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of Congo 2-1 last night in the second leg of the third-round tie.
Sundowns now await the draw today for the African Confederation Cup into which they drop after another bitter disappointment, left to chase Africa’s secondary competition rather than the glamorous top prize.
Sundowns fans tried to invade the pitch after the Cameroon referee played a scandalous four minutes of stoppage time when the Congolese were blatantly time-wasting, but in the end Sundowns have only themselves to blame for winning by just a single goal and letting in an all-important away strike.
Down 0-1 from the fist leg, Sundowns had enough chances to easily win the return game but failed again with their finishing against a crafty opponent who used every trick to eat up time.
“Anxiety crept in and our decisionmaking let us down,” was the on-spot analysis of a bitterly disappointed Pitso Mosimane afterwards.
Sundowns were effective early in getting around the back of the Vita defence with some fancy footwork from the likes of Khama Billiat, Leonardo Castro, Keegan Dolly and Themba Zwane, but the final ball was poor and either went straight to the visiting goalkeeper or was cleared by the defence.
Ordinarily, Sundowns would have buried the chances they got in the 12th, 14th, 18th and 20th minutes, but they seemed to freeze at the vital moment and were not aggressive enough with their final touch. Usually they are not as forgiving in front of goal.
It meant that the early goal they craved did not come and left them vulnerable to the counter-attack as they were sucked forward.
Vita Club did not get a chance until the 28th minute when Mayimona Ikanga’s shot from long range deflected for Kule Mbombo to stretch and get a touch, which Wayne Sandilands saved.
But 11 minutes later, Mbombo got a brilliant little touch to a cross from Bernand Morrison, the Ghanaian import in the Vita lineup, and the ball squeezed into the net past Sandilands and Thabo Nthethe.
Suddenly Sundowns went from needing one goal to level the aggregate score to needing three to win the tie, but they began their attempted comeback within 120 seconds as Castro won a fortuitous penalty after being challenged by Vita goalkeeper Nelson Lukong and Nthethe converted the resultant penalty.
Pitso Mosimane then brought on Teko Modise just before half time for Zwane, looking for more dominance in the midfield.
It took until the 75th minute for Sundowns to go ahead as Nthethe put Tebogo Langerman through but hard as they tried in the final quarter-hour for a decisive third goal, it did not come.
In the final minutes, Billiat had a header saved and Asevile Mbekile missed from a tight angle but the Congolese saw off the onslaught to launch into wild post-match celebrations.
