South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane said that his team deserved to win the CAF Champions League title after beating Egypt's Zamalek 3-1 on aggregate in the tournament's final.
The South Africans headed into the second leg with a comfortable 3-0 lead in Pretoria before losing 1-0 to Zamalek in Alexandria's Borg El-Arab stadium.
"We have to respect Zamalek, they’re a big team, and to come to Egypt and raise the trophy here … there’s no sweeter way to lift the trophy!" Mosimane told reporters after the game.
"It’s undisputable we played here, and we lifted it here. So we really deserve to lift the trophy, and it was a good game," the Sundowns tactician added.
More than 60,000 fans flocked to Borg El-Arab Stadium in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria to egg on the White Knights, whose novice coach Moemen Soliman admitted it would be a "miracle" to overturn the big deficit.
"It was difficult to play in front of the White Knight supporters – it was the first time we had ever faced such a big crowd," Mosimane said.
"But I instructed my players before the game to go out and walk on the pitch, as if they stayed in the dressing room, they would get a shock when they came out. So we dealt well with that,” he said.
Despite sitting back to soak up pressure, the Sundowns looked very dangerous every time they gained possession, with their neatly worked counter attacks almost resulting in a first-half goal that would have killed off the game.
"I’m proud of my boys, playing for the first time in front of such a big crowd … and we won the trophy," the Sundowns coach concluded.
