Rulani Mokwena is adamant the officials were correct to rule out Stephane Aziz Ki’s goal in the second leg of Sundowns’ CAF Champions League quarter-final.
Having drawn the first leg 0-0 with opponents Young Africans at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium a week before, the two sides again played out a goalless draw in the return leg, despite strong calls for a goal for the Tanzanian side.
The Brazilians ultimately secured their semi-final place with a 3-2 penalty shootout win.
Mokwena’s side also seemingly benefitted from some questional refereering in their 1-0 win over Cape Town Spurs on Tuesday.
Sundowns were awarded a first-half penalty despite replays suggesting the tackle was made outside the area.
Mokwena said on Goal: “There’s a lot that’s said about Sundowns and I fortunately have done it in the past, I’ve gone on a social media sabbatical, so I don’t know what is being said about who and how.
“I just watch the games, I can tell you that my opinions that the decision were right and those are just my opinions, I’m not an official ref, but of course, these are the things that happen in football.”
The head coach also recalled some decisions in the past that he felt went against his team.
“We lost an MTN8 final because of some decisions I thought were not fair on us, but that’s football you know, these things even themselves out. At the end of the day, you win some you lose some and that’s the nature of sport, football,” added the head coach.
“You can’t always be on the receiving end of the situations. I also believe, and you guys asked me and you laughed at the beginning of the season, one of your colleagues asked what you need to win the Champions League and I said a lot of luck.
“And when I see the incident against Yanga, I say we have a lot of luck as opposed to last year’s semi-final where we lost and we conceded the second goal, lost, I thought we were extremely unlucky.”