The unthinkable happened at Loftus on Friday night when defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns were knocked out of the Champions League by Wiliete SC of Angola at the preliminary stage.

Wiliete SC progressed to the knockout stages on away goals rule after the tie ended 1-1 at the end of the two legs and the Brazilians paid a heavy price for failing to score away from home last weekend.

This result is not going to go down well with Sundowns supporters and it’s going to put pressure on coach Miguel Cardoso because this is the trophy they crave the most.

This is despite the fact that a few weeks ago, they were celebrating the MTN8 win over Orlando Pirates in Durban.

Wiliete SC, who are top of the Girabola League in Angola, came back after Tashreeq Matthews opened the scoring in the first half to equalise through veteran striker Cristóvão ‘Mabululu’ Paciência after the break.

Sundowns went into this match with an impressive record of having qualified for the group stages since 2016, when they went all the way to win it.

The last time Sundowns failed to qualify for the group stages was in 2015 when they lost to TP Mazembe of the DRC and this means Orlando Pirates will be South Africa’s only representatives in the tournament this season.

Sundowns opened the scoring after eleven minutes when Matthews’ left-footed shot from outside the box deflected from one of the Wiliete SC players into the empty net.

Sundowns were the dominant side during the opening exchanges with Aubrey Modiba, Thabang Matuludi and Marcelo Allende delivering balls into the penalty area for Brayan León and Cassius Mailula.

WIliete SC were denied a good opportunity to draw level by Ronwen Williams, who stretched his legs to deny former Orlando Pirates midfielder Deivi Miguel Vieira.

Wiliete SC equalised 48 minutes when the vastly experienced Mabululu capitalised from a defensive mistake by Mailula to beat advancing Williams.

For the equaliser, Mailula played a soft pass to the back and the ball went further away from Allende and it fell on the path of Mabululu to find the back of the net.

Cardoso made his first substitution with attacker Siyanda Ndlovu replacing ineffective Mailula just after the hour mark as he went for fresher ideas to unlock Wiliete SC.

A few minutes later, Cardoso threw in Thapelo Morena and Antonio van Wyk for Matuludi and Modiba as he pushed for the goal that would edge the closer to winning this game.