Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says his side ‘gave it their best shot’ but admits it wasn’t enough to overcome Al Ahly in the Caf Champions League quarter-finals.

The Brazilians failed to secure their progress to the semi-finals of the continental competition after suffering a 3-1 aggregate defeat by Pitso Mosimane’s Al Ahly side in the two-leg quarter-final fixture.

Mngqithi admitted that conceding an early goal made it a bit of a challenge of overcoming their first-leg deficit, but the Sundowns coach praised his side for showing real character against the Egyptian giants.

‘We knew it was not going to be easy, but I think we also made it a little bit more difficult by conceding from that set piece,’ Mngqithi told his club’s official website.

‘We tried very hard to push them, they were sitting with a very low block which we tried to break down. Unfortunately, we conceded from that corner kick and I think we did not do very well in our zones.

‘We did expect that if they score we might be expected to dig a little bit deeper, and we tried. I can not fault the players, they gave it their best shot, but on the day with everything that we tried we could not get the desired outcomes.

‘But this is how a Champions League match will always be, you can give it so much but at times it can be difficult to penetrate such a low block.

‘We did what we had to do on the day, but unfortunately whatever we did was not enough to win the match.’