Angolan club Petro Atletico were delighted with African Champions League success over Cape Town City on Saturday with coach Alexandre Santos admitting the 3-0 scoreline had come as something of a surprise.
“If someone told me you’d win 3-0 at the home of Cape Town City, and also keep a clean sheet, of course I wouldn’t have expected it,” said the Portuguese-born coach who last season engineered the downfall of Mamelodi Sundowns in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Santos that he felt City had been deflated after Gleison’s first half goal for the Angolan champions, which came against the run of play.
“I think the expectation of Cape Town City was big and when they suffered the first goal, the ambience of the game change. I felt that and it was our job to do that. We are good team but also Cape Town,” he added.
The coach said he had immediately told his players after the match that they could not afford to slack in the return game.
“The main thing that I see in my players is the rigour, the motivation and ambition to win all the games that we play and I want that in the second leg.”
The return game will be played in Luanda on Friday with the aggregate winner booking a spot in the group phase of the competition.
“We hope that we can first go to the stage group, then we have to see which teams we have to face,” added Santos.
“But I know our team wants a lot to do well, because they have a lot of ambition.”