Coach Manqoba Mngqithi could only admit to the hurt after Mamelodi Sundowns were spectacularly dumped out of the Champions League by Petro Atletico in the quarterfinal stage on Saturday at FNB Stadium.

Angolan side Petro, who will take on Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca in the semifinals, progressed with a 3-2 on aggregate win over Sundowns after they won 2-1 in Luanda and pulled off a hard fought 1-1 draw in Johannesburg.

For Sundowns, this is the fourth time in five attempts they have failed to reach the semifinal stage of the Champions League. This mental block is causing a complex for a team that covets a second success to their 2016 triumph, and was shaping up as a dark horse for this season's title after their impressive group stage performance.

This was the third time in succession where Downs failed to go past the quarterfinal stage after elimination at the hands of Al Ahly in the last two editions.

“It hurts too much, I don’t want to lie,” said Mngqithi as he surveyed the wreckage at Nasrec.

“What is unfortunate is that I still believe that our team was better on the day but unfortunately that does not count when you didn’t put balls in the net.

“The truth of the matter is that in the Champions League, unlike in the PSL, when you make one or two stupid mistakes you get punished. The goals we conceded that side [in Luanda] were bad goals.

“Crosses are coming in and you have a four against one in box but you still concede. The second one you can see that when they go to the wide channels they don’t waste time but they put the ball into the box and again there was no picking up in the box.

“It hurts because you know that the team is better than what it delivered, especially in the first leg where probably 70% of the team did not perform to their fullest potential.

“But today [Saturday] I will not fault a lot of guys except to say we did not take the chances that we got and in football if you don’t take your chances you get punished.”

Mngqithi, whose team still has a chance of winning a domestic treble this season, said the players were inconsolable at the Champions League setback, but Sundowns would not play the blame game.

“You will not blame anyone for being angry — it is very important for the team to be angry. I would have felt very bad if after this result we were in a jolly good mood, singing and dancing.

“Everybody understands how important this match was for us. We all wanted to win this trophy and that’s a fact. That’s why I would not want to get into this thing of blaming those who made mistakes here and there.

“In football somebody must make a mistake for you to concede or somebody must make a mistake for you to score. We must accept some of the mistakes and move on. Sometimes people who make mistakes are the ones who do so much good for you.

“It is very important as a coach and the leadership of the team to kill those elements of gossip and the blame game and wanting to look at this one or that one, because we are one team.

“If one person made a mistake, we all made a mistake. As the coaches we must stand up and say maybe we must be the ones who take the blame ahead of the players.

“The truth of the matter is that the players are still very important for us and they have done very well for us in many instances and they are still going to be very important to us.

“There are times in football where coaches must be willing to embrace these boys and show love even when everybody thinks you should be fighting. At times, there is no use fighting over spilt milk.”