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Cape Town - There appeared to be genuine relief for Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane after his team's Nedbank Cup campaign was ended by Golden Arrows.
A brilliant individual effort in the second half at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday by Nduduzo Sibiya was enough to send Arrows into the last eight.
The result left Sundowns winless in their last five games. But with a growing injury list, and with the domestic league and Champions League titles still to defend, the Brazilians' exit from the Nedbank Cup will at least make their intense fixture list slightly more manageable.
Mosimane was a bit disappointed at the manner of the defeat and felt his players made similar errors to those they committed in a 0-0 league draw with Bloemfontein Celtic a couple of days earlier.
"It's a duplicate of the Celtic match, we knew about, we were going to be caught on the counter and we have to play.
"Again the goalkeeper wins Man of the Match, against Celtic the goalkeeper won Man of the Match. We are trying, but it's not good enough," Mosimane said after the surprise exit.
"Some things happen for a reason, maybe it's okay to leave the Nedbank Cup and focus on the Champions League and the league.
"Because it's unbelievable with the injuries and I think the team played well, they represented us well."
The Masandawana mentor had some special words of praise for the 22-year-old debutant defender Motjeka Madisha.
"My man of the match is Madisha, he did exceptionally well. You couldn't even see that we don't have (Soumahoro) Bangaly, Wayne Arendse or Ricardo (Nascimento)."
