Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies, the continental champions, defeated Mozambique’s Costa Do Sol 8-1 on Sunday at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Durban to jumpstart their Hollywoodbets COSAFA Women’s Champions League zonal qualification.
Melinda Kgadiete and Andisiwe Mgcoyi both scored excellent braces in a dominant first half.
The Brazilians grabbed a dominating 5-0 lead into halftime thanks to a well-taken penalty from captain Zanele Nhlapho.
Salome Kekana and Miche Minnies, both making their CAF debuts, scored goals soon after the restart.
As the Continental Champions scored their seventh goal of the day, Rhoda Mulaudzi also put her name on the scoring sheet.
Cidalia Cuta’s well-converted penalty gave the visitors, who were making their competitive debut, a late consolation.
That didn’t do much to lessen the excitement as Sundowns Ladies cruised to an enormous 8-1 win.
Kgadiete was awarded Woman of the Match after her magnificent double. She said, “I am extremely pleased with our performance since we generated so many opportunities.
From the moment the whistle blew, we demonstrated that we were better than the competition.
Although I thought we could have scored more, it is a problem we want to improve in our next games.
Although I was pleased with the goals, I was much happier with our team’s entire performance.
Coach Jerry ‘Kappa’ Tshabalala thinks his squad was capable of scoring much more despite just scoring eight goals.
“The idea was to control the ball early and set up scoring opportunities, and we achieved that.
Our forwards were on the ball and took advantage of their opportunities, but we could have done a lot more with the ones we generated.
However, despite our lack of familiarity with the opposition, we performed well. I must commend my players for maintaining a steady pace throughout the whole game.
Despite not having played many competitive games, our opponents boldness overall.
We may be telling a different tale right now if they had played competitive games prior to this tie, said Kappa.
The next match for Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies is against Botswana’s Double Action Ladies, who reached the semifinals of the previous season.
The 2022 TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League finals will be place in Morocco later in the year, and the winner of the COSAFA zonal qualification will progress there.