Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi says his side went into the MTN8 semi-final second leg against Golden Arrows with the mentality of reaching the final.

The Brazilians booked their place in the top-eight final after securing a 4-1 aggregate victory over Arrows following their 3-0 win at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Sundowns will now take on Cape Town City in the final after the Citizens secured a comfortable 4-0 victory over Swallows FC at Dobsonville Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Mngqithi also underlined his determination to bring silverware back to Chloorkop, starting with the elusive MTN8 trophy.

“The one thing we did very well was to prevent them from having buildups from the back, especially to kill the space for the centre backs because they are the playmakers, which is why we went with two strikers directly to confront the two centre backs and they killed a lot of very good, high-pressing moments,” Mngqithi told his club’s official website.

“In the second half we lost a little bit of control, the game started to be scrappy and they gained momentum in that process, which is why we had to bring in Mkhulise to try to stabilise the midfield and change into a three-man midfield because at that time they were gaining momentum. Immediately when ‘Pitso’ came in, we regained control of the game.

He added: “I must say, the boys gave a very good account of themselves. They knew we wanted to go through and we made it clear to them that we wanted to win this match. For us, every match we want to win it, we did not look at what we got in the previous match. Even after the first half when we scored two goals, in the second half we still said we want to win the second half and forget about the first half,” explained coach Manqoba.

“It was very important for our players to come into this match with the mentality to know that we must book a place in the final and when we are in the final at that time we will be talking about making sure that they must create for a legacy. The team has won any other trophy but they’ve not won the MTN8 since 2007. We want to tread carefully, we want to keep our feet on the ground and focus as much as we can.

“It’s our target, the message was very clear from the beginning from all of us as the coaches that this crop of players must also make their own legacy. They’ve got a responsibility, to others the MTN8 might not be that prestigious trophy, but to us and the new generation it’s very important to say we won the MTN8 Cup that was elusive for over so many years,” Manqoba concluded.