Cape Town City head coach Jan Olde Riekerink believes Mamelodi Sundowns played into their hands in a dominant 3-2 win on Monday.
Surprise Ralani and Kermit Erasmus scored in the first-half at Loftus Versveld to give City a 2-1 lead at half-time, before the result was secured as Ralani completed his brace.
Riekerink was proud of his team's performance, but also pointed out that Sundowns made it easier for them by playing into their strengths.
"First of all I'm very proud of the team and very happy for the spectators in Cape Town and that we could bring it today," Riekerink told SuperSport TV.
"I think the first six minutes we didn't start very well, especially the first-half. There were a lot of spaces on the pitch. We have players who can deal with the spaces, technically so good, they are aware of what is happening on the field.
"And what's what happened in the game. We could use the spaces that Sundowns let open and then you're playing to our strength. For the biggest part of the game we were the better team," he said.
"We played on the left a little bit different from the right because Fagrie [Lakay] is a player that has to go more behind the defence and Surprise [Ralani] will be more in spaces, so we hold the ball there a little bit longer and we could have a lot of good attacks on the left side.
He added: "People must not underestimate us, we didn't play for four months, this is our second game in four days. In the end the mind was stronger than the body.
"I told them in the last four days that these games now, we will be tired, we will physically go to the bottom and the players that will feel most fatigued they will lose the games. Now we've showed today that they did such a fantastic job, especially mentally in the last phase and I'm very happy and proud of my team."
- TEAMtalk media
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