Mngqithi on Zwane snub, will he start MTN8 semifinal second-leg?

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi has responded to whether Themba Zwane will be among the starters in the MTN8 semi-final second-leg against Stellenbosch FC.

The Brazilians lost 1-0 at home to ‘Stellies,’ who now head to the return tie with an away goal advantage. The match will take place on Sunday, 1 August, at Moses Mabhida Stadium at 3 pm.

Zwane, who is the captain of the Tshwane giants, hasn’t started in the past two games the team has played under the new leadership of Mngqithi this season.

Yesterday, he came on from the bench and Bafana Ba Style began to look better offensively, making more box entries but couldn’t find an equaliser.

After the match, Mngqithi was asked whether ‘Mshishi’ would be in the starting line-up on Sunday, given his impact in the first leg.

He remarked that he prefers not to make premature decisions regarding the lineup as they are still going to have more training sessions this week in preparation for the second leg.

However, he admitted the second match will need a “different” approach from what they came up with on Wednesday.

MANQOBA MNGQITHI ON WHETHER THEMBA ZWANE WILL START SECOND LEG

“I think I will be going ahead of myself if I already start to think about the line-up of the next match when we still have so many training sessions to see what we can get,” said Mngqithi. “The strategy will obviously have to be different and it’s a game that one goal is not enough.

“It’s a game where I believe we will be completely a different team. Sometimes, we need results like these in football if we still have a second chance.”

Mngqithi finds a silver lining in the defeat, considering it a wake-up call for his team, which he feels has been performing admirably, especially during the pre-season friendly matches.

MNGQITHI SEES A SILVER LINING IN THE DEFEAT

“When you have been doing well in all the matches, the friendlies and everything you have played, sometimes it’s creates an impression that you have an entitlement to the results,” he continued.

“I’m sure immediately after we conceded the goal, you started to see a completely different team. And you could see that now we want to get a goal, we are playing, and we know what we are trying to do; we’ve done this in many instances.

“You don’t want these situations to be created by you conceding first. You want the team to start the game with that mentality.

“To be honest, in as much as I complain about the control, there were a lot of elementary mistakes we did technically. We lost the ball cheaply in moments where there was not much of a stress from the opposition.

“When we started to pick up ourselves, we always looked better. I think we finished the half very well, and we started the second half in a very good way, in my opinion.

“And we looked like we could get a goal anytime, but unfortunately, we missed the opportunities that could have helped the team.”

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