Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has revealed his side had the faith and confidence to beat Al Ahly in their Caf Champions League Group A clash over this past weekend.

The Brazilians secured their second win in the group stages after a late goal by Thapelo Morena handed Sundowns a narrow 1-0 win over the Red Eagles at the Cairo International Stadium in Egypt.

With the win, Sundowns remained at the top of the Group A standings with seven points from two matches, while Ahly dropped down to third place on the table – level on a point with last-placed Al-Hilal.

Mngqithi expressed his delight at finally defeating their Egyptian rivals Ahly in the Champions League.

“To be honest, even last year we believed that we had a team that could win, we were training a team that we also knew has got a little bit of capacity to win. To be honest, Al Ahly has also played a lot of matches, that’s why we had to drag the game a little bit and make sure that they don’t get an early goal because we knew that as the game progressed they might tire down,” Mngqithi told his club’s official website.

“At the latter stages of the first half we could’ve punished them, and in the latter stages of the second half that’s when we punished them. We anticipated what they might bring and we were confident that the team we have has got the capacity.

“We were still unhappy about what happened last year because even last year we believed we deserved to win. We’ve always wanted to win, the last two matches that we played against Ahly if you were to check on the stats of those two matches we dominated in every front – shots at goals, box entries, crosses and counter-presses. We were very dominant, if you were to check ball possession of the last two matches that we played against them, we were unfortunate because they punished us.”

He continued: “We made two silly mistakes in the first half here, where [Taher] Mohamed came inside and scored with the right foot. We know Taher is always dangerous there and we had analysed that and unfortunately in the latter stages of the match the goalkeeper also committed an error which gave them a big advantage going to South Africa,” said the winning coach.

The Sundowns mentor went on to share his gameplan that contributed to his side walking away with maximum points in Cairo, Egypt.

“Our plan was always to try to defend from zone two so that we minimise the space behind our defence and we are able to close the pockets in the half spaces.

“We [expected] more, especially when they brought [Hussein Ali] El Sahaat, that they are going to be using the half spaces in those pockets to make sure that we drop a little bit, but we still put a lot of pressure on the ball, which I think we did very well.”

Mngqithi went on to praise Tunisia attacker Ali Maaloul for constantly causing Sundowns problems throughout the match.

“Their main player who causes a lot of problems when they enter the box is always Maaloul with his left foot, he’s got a very good delivery, he finds the half spaces easily and he also has the ability to find the space behind the defence.

“We had to make sure that we try to close his left foot and force him to the inside which we did, but on a few occasions when he got the chance to put the ball in the box it was always looking deadly,” Mngqithi concluded.