Johnson did, however, concede that his side need to toughen up if they are to compete on the continent.
“This is how things are in Africa. It’s not easy. We can’t beat ourselves. We have to be strong. We have to focus on the coming matches,” Johnson said after the game.
Stars were awarded three penalties during the match in Swaziland but Johnson still felt as though the bulk of the decisions went against his charges.
“You get officiating like this. It takes the fun out of football. They don’t give you a chance. The officiating was completely bad. It was completely terrible. The first goal was offside. It takes the sting out of your team," Johnson complained.
"There were fouls after that but you don’t get them. It kills the game completely. What he thinks he is doing I don’t know because he kills the game of football. Slowly it gets to your team. It gets to your players.
“We try to get out of it. I think we played better football than them in the first half because we missed three or four chances. Good chances that their goalkeeper saved. I think the officiating spoiled the game. The officiating was not good for football. CAF should do something about it.”