AmaZulu coach Pablo Franco Martin hailed Mamelodi Sundowns as the best team in the continent following their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Rulani Mokwena’s men in the capital on Tuesday night.
A sublime second-half hat-trick from Lucas Ribeiro ensured a first win in four DSTV Premiership matches for the home side.
Usuthu remain in tenth place, 20 points behind Sundowns at the top of the league table.
Martin believes that Sundowns quality was the difference in the encounter.
“Well, not only in the second-half, I think in the first-half, corner-kicks, wide, deep passes we created several chances, in the first-half we were more competitive. The second-half we were starting better on the ball.
“But the first chance they had from one of our counter presses, we gave them more spaces, we know the quality of those guys, from there within five minutes we conceded the second goal, with the substitution we dominated a little bit the game.
“But at the end of the day this is a matter of quality, we’re playing against the best team, in my opinion, in Africa, so congratulations to them, they were better and now our final is Moroka Swallows next Tuesday and we have to prepare,” Martin replied to SuperSport TV after the game.
Martin says he will take a lot of positives from this game.
“If we take the positive things, the way we competed in the first-half, the situations where we were more comfortable on the ball, when we got rid of that pressure and we tried to play our football, I think this is something that can help us to grow a lil bit more.
“We don’t do the same mistakes we used to do before the break (AFCON), but anyway I think this team can still compete we’re going to keep on improving for sure. For that we need stability, not only on the field but off the field. Hopefully webget back to good results next Tuesday,” noted Martin.
