Mamelodi Sundowns defender Grant Kekana has suggested what the club has learned from their CAF Champions League campaign and what changes they would like the association to make going forward.
Sundowns could not retain their treble of trophies domestically, after only winning the DStv Premiership, by a landslide, but made improvements in the CAF Champions League after reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2019.
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The Brazilians were favourites to reach the final of the premier continental tournament after earning a goalless draw against defending champions Wydad Casablanca in the semi-final first-leg away.
However, the Tshwane giants let slip a lead twice to draw 2-2 with Wydad in the second-leg, in the capital city of the country and were eliminated on the away goals' rule.
Kekana says they aim to improve from their showing last season and they know where they came short.
"What you can expect from us next season is more of the same, with a lot more improvement because we know where we fell short this year and we are going to try to do our best," Kekana said in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.
The former SuperSport United utility player also opened up on the lessons they took from being eliminated by Wydad and suggested that they learned the hard way of playing their possession football, even when playing away.
"That's the most difficult competition to play in, when it comes to football in Africa. You know I think what we can take from this previous campaign is that even if we went and played away, we still played the same style of play and teams commended us for that," he said.
"Because usually, teams are known for backing off (when playing away) and you know parking the bus and we came and we gave it a good shot."
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"We were just unlucky because we were knocked out without even losing a game you know, which is testament to the goal difference we'll like to have out of football (in Africa), so that it makes everything fair," he added.
Should CAF follow UEFA in scrapping the away goals rule?
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