Cape Town City defender Taariq Fielies revealed to TFG SoccerClub what he did to keep the Mamelodi Sundowns attacking trio of Anthony Laffor, Jose Meza and Toni Silva quiet in their first-leg MTN8 semi-final tie.
The Salt River-born man enjoyed a lively encounter against Sundowns in the first-leg semi-final victory over Pitso Mosimane’s side picking up a yellow card in the first two minutes of the game, before fluffing an easy opportunity to give his side the lead moments before the half-time break.
The Citizens defender did, however, made amends for his miss as he latched onto Ayanda Patosi’s corner to smash home the only goal of the game to give his side the advantage going into second-leg in Pretoria.
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Besides getting the all-important goal which sees the Citizens take the advantage heading into the second-leg, Fielies’ defensive work was outstanding as he marshaled Benni McCarthy’s sides defence, keeping Masandawana’s foreign trio quiet.
‘They are top players and of course I had to do a good job on either one, because they all have speed,’ he told TFG Soccerlub.
‘So if we closed them down quickly without them getting a chance to run at us, they don’t have a chance to turn so basically it was about closing them down as soon as they received the ball,’ he added.
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When quizzed about his side’s excellent defensive work thus far this season – especially considering the departure of former captain Robyn Johannes to Bidvest Wits, Fielies cited the efforts behind the scenes, while praising his fellow defenders for making life easier.
🔵 Taariq Fielies was on fire in our 1-0 win over Sundowns 🔥
Man of the match ✅
Winning goal ✅
Clean sheet ✅
Killer celebration ✅
Swag ✅#iamCityFC pic.twitter.com/laFL8zlTfO— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC) August 26, 2018
‘I got help from the entire defence which made it easier. Robyn Johannes has moved on to a new journey, but we can’t dwell in his absence so we knew we all have to take responsibility, because he was our leader and we all working hard to keeping as much clean sheets as possible and so far so good,’ he concluded.
