Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has praised his players and technical team after the team produced consistent performances in their busy fixture schedule.

The Brazilians recorded their ninth consecutive victory across all competitions following their 5-0 rout of lower-division outfit Summerfield Dynamos in the Nedbank Cup quarter-finals.

Goals from Gaston Sirino, Kermit Erasmus, Lesedi Kapinga and Pavol Safranko secured Sundowns’ place in the Nedbank Cup semi-finals, where they have now been drawn against Royal AM.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final matchup GladAfrica Championship side Tshakhuma FC will take on DStv Premiership outfit Marumo Gallants, with the dates and venues yet to be confirmed by the PSL.

“We knew that we were playing at a team that is very organised, a formidable side with a very brilliant coach in Clinton Larsen, also a team that has got a lot of ex professional players. The good thing is that we wanted an early goal to make sure that the game takes shape immediately. If they are coming with a low block, they are immediately forced to come out to try and equalise, then the game is open for us and we were fortunate to get those two goals,” Mngqithi told his club’s official website.

“I think again after those two goals we gave them a little bit of time and space on the ball, [Sandile] Zuke managed to have a lot of time on the ball in the latter stages of the first half, which made us to look like we were defending a bit deep. We tried to push but maybe the players could not understand exactly what we were saying at that time, because we were unhappy that they were now having diagonal ball possibilities of even getting behind the defence.

“In the second half, I think we came with a more resolute mind to try and bury the game, and also press a lot from the top and force a lot of errors even from their centre backs which we did. But there were some areas which we were very unhappy about, I think we gave them two or three counter-attacks in the first half, one of them if the goalkeeper had a good delivery our rest defence was very bad, but we are learning from this.”

“And the players that were playing, most of them do not play regularly, so it was also good for them to also get a run and really gain these minutes that are very important in our preparations for all these competitions, because as the competition progresses we will need everyone.”

After cruising into the semi-finals of the Nedbank Cup, coach Mngqithi reflected on the structure of his team’s performance against the side from KwaZulu-Natal.

“We have an understanding with the team, we understand that we’ve got quiet a number of matches to be played which I must give credit to the coaches and the players themselves. We are in that mood now where we are comfortable to rotate without any fear that if we are tampering with this thing it might cause problems for us. That is why by now we have played maybe more than 32 players in this campaign which is very positive for us,” he added.

“We also believed in the team that we had, we had a lot of quality, at times people say we are playing fringed players and when you look at these fringed players they are probably national team players almost from start to finish.”

He added: “At this stage, a player like Gaston is a new acquisition for us, we are excited even as the technical team because when you look at Gaston we are saying this is one new additional member in the squad because he has not played. He’s fresh and he can still give us a little bit more freshness in the game and help us going forward, and when he performs like this we get excited.

“The same thing with Lebo [Maboe], we have gained another player because he has not been around for the longest of time and when he’s given an opportunity and he performs how he performed, we get excited. It’s like he’s a new acquisition. The same applies with George [Malukeka], when you see a player that has not been playing given an opportunity and then stamping his authority then it says to us maybe we look like a team that has just signed three more players towards the end of the season and that is encouraging,” Manqoba concluded.