Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy praised his players following their performance against Mamelodi Sundowns, who he believes is ‘the best team in the land’, writes DYLAN APPOLIS.

Taariq Fielies scored the only goal of the game as the Citizens take a one-goal advantage to Pretoria after securing a 1-0 victory over Sundowns in the semi-final first leg at Cape Town Stadium.

READ: Fielies hands CT City advantage over Sundowns

McCarthy believes his side were well structured and equipped to play in a match of this magnitude, especially coming up against a side of Sundowns quality.

‘I’m very happy that we kept a clean sheet. It’s not an easy game. Sundowns is the best team in our land. They’ve got the best players and make life difficult for you,’ McCarthy told SuperSport TV after the game.

‘When you have a game of this magnitude and you keep clean-sheet you have to praise your players. The effort the players gave, they gave everything. It was only a matter of time until that goal was going to come because we piled on the pressure.

‘At one stage if anyone of us was to put the ball on target it was bound to go in because it was coming. I’m very happy for the boys because they preserved and never gave up.’

Speaking on Fielies’ goal coming from a set-piece situation, the 40-year-old coach admits that his side are most dangerous when it comes to dead-ball situation.

‘The set-piece is what we’re good at. We’re dangerous. We practised it so it’s good situation one of them came off. I’m happy for the boys but it’s only 45 minutes. So now we are going to go there and try to defend the 1-0 win. Not that we will defend but we’ll try to play the same football we played today to try and put them under pressure. Hopefully, we will have to see ourselves in the final,’ he concluded.