The Brazilians were overwhelming favourites for the fixture played at the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein on Saturday night.

However, all Magesi needed were two clear cut chances to win the cup tie 2-1, with Mngqithi arguing they knew how the PSL rookies could hurt them.

"I think the game came out the way we expected it. We knew they will be defending from a medium to low block, mainly low block and we knew we had to try and cope as much as well,” Mngqithi said.

“No wonder we had 20 shots on target, 20 shots at goals but unfortunately they only had two shots on target and they were both goals. We knew they are a team that does not need too many chances to punish you.

“The only sad thing is the goals that we conceded because it's the areas that we worked very hard on and we identified particularly the first goal.

“We knew that Chirambadare [Edmore] is the most important player for them and his crossing precision is very good. It was unfortunate for Mothobi [Mvala] in the far post to have both Kakora [Tshepo] and Makhubu [Wonderboy] at the same time and he made a mistake of trying to jump to the one who was in front of him and the ball was played behind and that's how we conceded the first goal.

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But I think we had complete dominance of the game which we were not surprised by and we had possession in very good positions of the field, not necessarily in front of them. I think we had 80% possession and 20% with so many shots at goals but unfortunately, I think the universe called this one."

While the Sundowns coach did admit a few individual errors put them on the backfoot, Mngqithi added the defeat wasn’t from a lack of trying.

"I don't think there's anything much we could have done to win this match. Yes, there were a few bad decisions in the final third, where instead of a pass, we shoot, instead of maybe taking a shot, you still want another pass,” the coach added.

“So, those decisions I expected more especially when we are playing against a team that retreats and never really comes towards the ball. But you see so many good shots taken and credit must be given to Chipezeze again, I think he stood out for them, no wonder he became the Man of the Match.

“I think he's been very important in this tournament. It's probably one of the strangest things I've ever had in football in my coaching career where a goalkeeper of the champions is the Man of the Match in four consecutive matches of the competition up until they win the competition.

“He did very well, we must give credit to him and also give credit to Clinton because I think his team plays to his strength. They are a team that is looking for those counterattacks."

Mngqithi then had to immediately respond to a question over his future after losing out on yet another trophy this season.

"In football, you can expect anything, if you choose to become a coach, you must expect that in this space our jobs are always under scrutiny, every week. Every week we have to deliver,” he explained.

“It's unlike the CEO of a company who has to come at the end of a financial year but with us football coaches, it's always going to be, where are we going? Are we going towards the right direction or the wrong direction but I'm still very optimistic we are going the right direction.”

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