Petro de Luanda FC from Angola caused one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 CAF Champions League after ousting South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns from the quarterfinal stage on Saturday. Petro de Luanda won the home leg 2-1 then held the South Africa giants 1-1 in the reverse match on Saturday to qualify for the semifinal 3-2 on aggregate over two legs. Africa Top Sports (ATS) posed a few questions to Petro de Luanda coach Alexandre Santos (AS) about the games against Sundowns. Excerpts:
ATS: Congratulations for qualifying for the semifinal of the 2022 CAF Champions League.
AS: Thank you!
ATS: What does your feat of qualifying for the semifinal of the Champions League mean for Angola football?
AS Qualification to the semifinal is an amazing moment for the club, for the players and for the employees of all this cub because a lot of people work here to put all the conditions [for] our players [to perform] in every game….all of us are proud of our nation….we are very happy and very proud about that. That it is a historic moment with a lot of motivation to play in the semifinal against Wydad.
ATS: Do what do you think about the second match match itself and the delays caused by VAR?
AS: About VAR support to the game, always, I defend and I support this type of technology because it is the present and the future of the development of football, rules of football and justice of results, justice on some difficult decisions like as goal, penalty and an offside.
[However] I think it is always better for the referee and for the game to give to the players more support and more efficiency in the decisions… to know with VAR if the decision is right or not. I think in general, it is better for football to use that technology but in our case, in particular in the last game, the referee did spend a lot of time to take some decisions. It is not the best idea to take time …for the fans, for the advertisement and for the players to stop [the game] for a long time. The referees have to support VAR to improve the decision; to make it faster and I think it is the best we can give to football.
ATS: What do you think about some fans using lasers in the Champions League second leg match against Sundowns?
I think it is not good for football because if you think in big events like the [Fifa] World Cup, or like NBA or like NFL in USA, it never exists. It is impossible to do anything like that, to put in the players’ [faces], the main actors of the show problems [distracting them from] focusing on the task, to focus on penalty. I saw that situation in final of CAN (AFCON Egypt v Senegal). I saw in Morocco against Wydad and I saw in SA. CAF should do something and don’t allow it. That it is not good for anyone.