Chippa United head coach Daniel Malesela has admitted his side were lucky to only lose by two goals against Mamelodi Sundowns.

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The Brazilians raced into a two-goal lead in the first through Lebogang Maboe and Gaston Sirino, but the scoreline would have been bigger if the hosts did not squander numerous chances.

"A very jittery team that I noticed today, I wonder why we were so panicky in the beginning but also off-ish, one could sense a number of things when we were in the change room," Malesela told SuperSport TV after the match.

"We were quiet than usual, I will find out but actually we were very lucky to be beaten 2-0, it could have been five, six, seven or something like that.

"But you get these things sometimes when people are just off and you don't know why, we'll try find the reasons and work on the problem if there is a problem."

After going a goal down, Malesela made a double change in the 36th minute, as Thabiso Lebitso and Chidi Kwem replaced Gregory Damons and Avela Cezu.

"We had to do something because of the players that we looked at and said, 'Who is looking more panicky and who's is not doing their functions properly?' and then we chose those and said, 'lets take these ones out and take it from there'.

"Besides the panicking and all of that it also gives me another perspective that I will not mention now I will discuss with the technical team and maybe they can give me a better idea on what is needed for us to do."

A suggenstion was made that perhaps fatigue was the factor in their flat performance, as the Chilli Boys have played their last nine matches away from home due to a high number of Covid-19 cases in Port Elizabeth but Malesala was not sure.

"I would not want to say it's fatigue, could be but I doubt if it is," he added.

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