Neekens still not happy

Despite wasting a number of chances that could have seen another resounding Nedbank Cup victory for Mamelodi Sundowns, coach Johan Neeskens said the most important thing was making it to the next round.

While the Brazilians coasted to a 2-0 victory in their round of 16 match against Wits at Bidvest Stadium on Sunday, the Downs coach was not entirely satisfied with his team's showing.

“It doesn't matter if we win with two-nothing or five-nothing, because we made it through to the next round,” Neeskens said.

“In the first half both teams were more or less equal, with not too many chances, but I was not too happy with our performance.

“I think we must be happy because we go on in the cup which is what we came here to do.”

The Brazilians opened the scoring through Nyasha Mushekwi in the 19th minute, and while it took them over 50 minutes to seal the result, Neeskens believed after the opening goal his side were in charge.

“The moment we scored the first goal we took total control of the game, and we could have even scored a couple more with the chances we created.”

Sundowns, however, did look stretched at times in the first half by the youthful Clever Boys' attack and it was a cause of concern for Neeskens.

“The moment we played forward and they tried to press us, we didn't move up enough so I thought we were not compact enough," he said.

“We also gave them too much time to build up, then we were defending in our own box and we were asking for problems.”

The Dutch coach said Sundowns, at the summit of the Premiership table, would shift their focus back to the league campaign until the next round of Cup matches.

“The first thing we have to see is who are opponents are in the next round," Neeskens said.

"But if you want to win this competition you have to beat everybody, so right now our focus is our next away game and then we will take if from there.

"Our focus right now is not the Nedbank Cup, but turns back to the league.”

Wits coach Roger de Sa praised his young side, though he admitted they made multiple errors.

“We made too many mistakes that cost us the goals," De Sa said.

"We know that against a team with the quality of Sundowns, that if you make one mistake they're going to punish you.

"Overall I think the youngsters played pretty well. Possession-wise we were alright.

“It's just those errors that we have to get rid of and the kids will get better as time goes by and we'll learn from this one.”

Elsewhere on Sunday, Santos overcame third-tier outfit Roses United with a 1-0 victory in Botshabelo.

On Saturday, Free State Stars secured a shock 2-1 win over giants Orlando Pirates in Soweto, while AmaZulu defeated Witbank Spurs 1-0 in Durban.

-Supersport.com