Mamelodi Sundowns defender Neo Maema admits his side were disappointed and angry after their exit from the Caf Champions League at the weekend, but insists they have to switch focus to the league title, which they can secure against Cape Town City on Wednesday.

Downs lock horns with Cape Town City in Pretoria on Wednesday where they can bag a record-extending 12th Premiership championship with a point in the encounter; it would also be their fifth consecutive title in a period of dominance.

Sundowns crashed out of the Caf Champions League at the quarter-final stage after a frantic 1-1 draw with Petro de Luanda at the FNB Stadium on Saturday evening, with the Angolans progressing 3-2 on aggregate.

Speaking to the Downs media team in the wake of the disappointment, Maema insisted it’s their responsibility to switch focus to the record-breaking league title.

“Following the exit of the Champions League we only got 24 hours to be disappointed, to feel the way we feel – disappointed, to be angry and to be mad. The whole family of Mamelodi Sundowns and the coaches gave us support, especially the supporters. It’s our responsibility now to shift our focus to the league, it wasn’t easy to deal with getting out of the competition that we really, really wanted to go all the way, but it’s football and it happens.

“We are allowed to be sad and to be disappointed in ourselves because we expect so much from ourselves. We are a big club, we are top professionals, so that’s what happens. The universe doesn’t always give you what you want, you have to fight for it and unfortunately we got out before the semi-finals but we are preparing to look forward to the next one.”

A point against the Citizens will set up another potential domestic treble for the Brazilians after winning the MTN8 and progressing to the semi-finals of the Nedbank Cup, where they will face Royal AM on Saturday. Maema, though, is wary of the threat Wednesday’s opposition pose.

“It’s always a hard team to play against, looking at their past five games that they played, they’ve won four and only drew their last game. It only means that they are high in conference and they are gonna come at us, and coming from great results from the past few games it can only bring confidence into their gameplan, we expect them to come at us [but] we’ve also been preparing for them.

“We’ve watched some of their clips and we are just getting into a space of forgetting what happened and looking forward, the coaches as well as the senior players are also helping us to get over it and to start focusing on Cape Town City because we have so much to play for – the league is still there and also the Nedbank Cup. We are still looking forward to finishing the league and the season very strong.”