CAF Champions League: Stade Malien head coach Mauril Njoya plats Sundowns fall in return leg

Head coach Mauril Njoya believes Stade Malien still have a chance to turn their CAF Champions League quarter-final around despite suffering a heavy 3–0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in the first leg.

The Malian side now faces a daunting task ahead of the return fixture in Bamako, where they must score at least four unanswered goals to overturn the deficit and keep their continental hopes alive.

For Sundowns, the commanding first-leg victory places them in a strong position to secure a sixth consecutive semi-final appearance as they continue their pursuit of continental success after finishing runners-up last season.

However, Njoya expressed frustration over the use of the Video Assistant Referee during the match, suggesting the referee was pressured into consulting the system.

“We lost the battle not the war, but I have to mention in terms of VAR, there’s a lot of kind of I can say mistakes because they put pressure on the referee to go and look at the VAR. I guess there’s a lot of progress to make. Yes, today we lost, but I guess we will try to do our best in Bamako,” Njoya told SABC Sport.

The Stade Malien coach also pointed to the absence of key players through injury and suspension as a major factor in the defeat, noting that his squad depth was stretched during the encounter.

“It happened because we have some players who are suspended and others injured. The bench that we had is what we had to do so I guess in a week from now, we will have our players back and will be different in Bamako,” Njoya said.

Despite the uphill challenge, Njoya remains optimistic about his team’s chances in the second leg.

“We are still going to play in Bamako, they have scored three goals here, we can score and still go through, why not? We’re going to try ourselves; I think we can score three goals like them, why not?” he concluded.