Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena was full of praise for his players after eliminating Kaizer Chiefs in the MTN8 on Saturday.
Sundowns booked their spot in the MTN8 final after a 2-1 win and 3-2 aggregate victory over Chiefs in the semi-final second-leg.
A brace by Peter Shalulile was enough to see the Brazilians through and although the Glamour Boys scored courtesy of Ashley Du Preez, who equalised in the second stanza, they could not get the second equaliser, which could have taken them to the final.
Read | Shalulile sends Chiefs crashing out of MTN8
Mokwena, after the match said the way he's exhausted, after Sundowns also beat Pirates in midweek, he did not even want to talk about tactics but just wants to give credit to his boys.
"I'm almost 70, I've aged, this week has been tough, it's been one very good team on Wednesday, it's been another one on the weekend that is under a lot of pressure," Mokwena told SuperSport TV.
"And congratulations to the boys, I just wanna say congratulations to the club, we made it difficult but actually I don't even wanna talk about any tactics, anything, I just want to congratulate Mamelodi Sundowns, this fantastic group of players and now onto Wednesday, there's another difficult one waiting for us," he said.
Shalulile gave Sundowns the lead within ten seconds after a high press on goalkeeper Brandon Petersen and Mokwena suggested that they work hard to identify the weaknesses of the opposition, after the Namibian also revealed that the instruction was not to allow Petersen to play long balls.
"We work very hard. It can be an instruction but the players have to follow it so the game of football belongs to the players and congratulations to this group, super proud to be their coach, not easy at half-time," he said.
"It could have been more to be honest but let's focus only on the positives, congratulations to this team, so proud of them."
The 36-year old coach went on and said that what pleases him the most about their win over Chiefs is that they will be going to their first final with the new group of players.
"I don't want to talk about them (negatives) at the moment, they are so many but look we have not been in a final, this is a fairly new group we've established now, a couple of new players last season, with two or three transfer windows, so it's a fairly new group," he went on.
"Apart from Denis (Onyango), 'Mshishi' (Themba Zwane), Thapelo Morena, the rest of these boys are new, Ronza (Ronwen Williams), Tebza (Teboho Mokoena), so it's our first final together and that's the positive, that's what I want to focus on.
"A big week where we've beaten two big teams in one week, it's incredible," he said.
Mokwena was also asked what would be his preference in the final, with Pirates taking on Stellenbosch on Sunday in the second semi-final second-leg and indicated that he would not be watching.
"I can't even think about it, I should not even know, I'm gonna have to, I'll probably read a book, I'll be going to church actually," he added.
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