Medeama coach Tom Strand rued his side's defensive display in the final stage of their African Confederation Cup clash against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday that left the Ghanaian side with a mountain to climb in the second leg.

Medeama had been leading 1-0 up until the 81st minute, but three goals in six minutes from Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila turned the tie on its head.

“It was very painful to see this happening in the last minutes but still I think we played a very good game today,” the Swede told SuperSport after the match.

“Unfortunately, we got a little bit tired and got out of our positions and let Mamelodi get too much space to play in and they came back into the game.

“We shouldn’t have let them come back into the game but it happened today, and it’s football, it happens.”

Strand says fatigue and playing at altitude was a contributor to their demise.

“It felt like we got really tired in the last ten minutes and we started to play in a different way that I don’t want to play, so we’ll work on that.”

Strand questioned one of Sundowns’ goals. The Brazilians already had two other goals ruled out for offside.

“It feels like an offside pass to the one who made the assist [Thabo Nthethe] inside the box so that one [Malajila goal] looks very suspicious for me.”