Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has admitted that Themba Zwane’s absence had an effect on how they approached the game in their 0-2 defeat by Al Ahly in a Caf Champions first-leg quarter-final match this past Saturday.

The influential forward suffered a hamstring injury in a PSL game against Maritzburg United at the start of the month, but the Brazilians’ coaching staff were confident he would be fit for the clash with Ahly.

He, however, didn’t manage to overcome the injury and Mngqithi admitted the lack of options hurt them when Gatson Sirino was forced out of the game.

‘It was unfortunate that in the last stage of the preparation we had to pull him [Zwane] out because he was not 100% fit‚’ said Mngqithi of the influential player who gives the Brazilians a lot of attacking momentum when he’s on the field.

‘That had an effect on how we approached the game. But I still give credit to the players that played.

‘I think they played very well and we were just unfortunate not to score. You can imagine if we had scored first with the chance we got what would have happened in this match.

‘When you’ve hit the upright and missed with a whisker in the first half on a corner kick and you also got another very good corner kick in the second half‚ where El-Shenawy really came to the party‚ you are always made to believe that you had a chance to score three goals.

‘But we were unfortunate not to score those three goals.’

On Sirino’s performance and substitution‚ Mngqithi said the pint-sized Uruguayan retreated to deep positions when he didn’t have the ball and that affected their game going forward.

‘At the time we took him out‚ Sirino was being kicked a lot and he was beginning to move away from the No 10 position‚’ said Mngqithi.

‘He was coming back and playing like a midfielder and it was not helping us because that’s where we wanted to have more numbers‚ in and around the opposition box‚ more especially in the zone 14 or the grey zone.

‘But, unfortunately because he was kicked far too many times without the opponents getting any bookings‚ it ended up forcing him to play a little bit backwards and without him facing the game.’