Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane feels his side were let down by incorrect offside calls in the first leg of their CAF Champions League quarterfinal against Wydad Casablanca.

The Moroccan giants overturned Sundowns one-goal lead from the encounter played in South Africa as the two sides played to a 1-1 aggregate scoreline, forcing the two teams into the lottery of a penalty shoot-out where the defending champions lost 3-2 after missed penalties by Percy Tau, Bangaly Soumahoro and Yannic Zakri.

Mosimane, however, felt his side lost the game in Pretoria already after the referee gave a number of offsides which seemed incorrect.

“I think we lost in Pretoria. In Pretoria we had three balls [that were ruled offside],” he said in post-match comments.

“The referee said it’s offside, but it was not offside. We would have scored three goals, like last year we scored three [against Zamalek].

“It’s very sad for football,” he added.

The former Bafana Bafana coach insisted that Masandawana did not go to the North African country to defend their one-goal lead.

“I think we played very well. We came here to play and not to sit back but unfortunately in penalties anybody can win. But congratulations to Wydad.

“We pressed. We were not scared to lose. We saw that they could not take the stress and we played in their half and put them under pressure.

“You could see that they could not take the ball out of their half. But I have to give them credit [because] in the first half they really showed that they want to win,” he concluded.

Photo: Aubrey Kgakastsi/Backpagepix

-This story originally appeared on SportsClub.co.za