Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane feels their elimination from the Nedbank Cup gives them breathing room between the Absa Premiership and Caf Champions League.

The Brazilians failed to advance to the next round of the Nedbank Cup when they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Chippa United in the last 32 at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday afternoon through a late goal from Frederic Nsabiyumva.

‘Ja, a typical cup game, a game of football. They had their chances, okay, not as much as we had. I don’t know [if] it was a corner kick, hey? But the goal was legitimate. I’d like to see what happened for it to be a corner kick,’ Mosimane told SuperSport TV after the game.

‘We have to congratulate them, they also wanted it. But we kept on missing and missing. I don’t know how many chances. But the positive side out of this that I thought we were going to run out of legs. I was a little bit worried about going to extra time, because I have a game on Tuesday [against] AmaZulu and [another] game on Friday [against] ASEC Mimosas.

‘But to be honest, what I’m happy about is the mental strength of the players, the will to win because we were stronger at the end. We kept going and going and I thought at this point in time [latter stages of the game] it was going to be like Highlands where they are pushing us at the back. So it shows the mind was right, the will was right. A good heart, what can I say, they wanted to win.

‘I’m happy that everyone can see, inasmuch as it was our sixth game in 19 days, we are still going. I like the spirit, I like the mentality. We should just accept, they won the game.

‘The positive is that it takes four games away from us [road to the final] and gives us a little bit of a breather in the league and the [Caf] Champions League, because the programme is hectic. You can’t have everything, you got to also accept that other teams have an opportunity.

‘Andile [Jali] went off because he hasn’t played for long. He just could not take the load, but we had to play him so he can also get game time. We’re also out with [Tiyani] Mabunda through injury, we’re out with Thapelo [Morena] through flu. I had to keep the captain [Hlomho Kekana] for the next two games that are in five days. Those games are as important as this one.’