Mokwena reeling from pain of first defeat of the season but adamant ‘every team loses’

Rulani Mokwena suffered his first loss as MC Alger boss on Friday after a 2-1 defeat to Al Hilal Omdurman in Group D’s CAF Champions League outing at Amahoro in Rwanda.

Prior to the CAF Inter-Club outing, the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach had seen his team collect eight wins and four draws in 12 outings across all competitions. It explains why they had come into the match as favourites.

However, goals from Abdelrazig Omer and Mohamed Abdelrahman on either side of Oussama Benhaoua’s own goal ensured the Sudanese side collected a 2-1 win and maximum points in ther pool that also has Mamelodi Sundowns and Saint Eloi Lupopo of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Coach Mokwena wasn’t amused with the way his side started the game, insisting he couldn’t even recognise them.

We have five more games in the group

“A difficult game, we expected it to be difficult and it was difficult,” he said in his post-match presser..

“Every team loses in the world; we will take our first defeat this season with a lot of humility, and also, we will take the lessons that come out of the result. And now we have five more games to play in the group. Let’s hope we get better.

“After losing a game, it’s difficult to speak about positives, but as I said to you, in the first half, I couldn’t recognise my team,” Mokwena added.

“But the response in the second half was good. Tactically, we also changed the build-up and some things.

“It was much better, and I think if we played the way we played in the second half for 90 minutes, the results would have been different,” he concluded.

On Friday, another tough outing against Mamelodi Sundowns awaits the People’s Club knowing they can’t afford dropping more points.