CAFCL: Sundowns were not defensive against Esperance – Cardoso

Photo Credit – Mamelodi Sundowns Media.

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has dismissed claims that he used a defensive approach against Esperance on their way to qualify for the semi-finals of the lucrative CAF Champions League.

Having beaten the Tunisian giants 1-0 on home soil in the first leg, the Brazilians travelled to Tunis where they forced a 0-0 draw in Rades on Tuesday to qualify on a 1-0 aggregate scoreline. The 0-0 draw elicited debate with many calling Sundowns a defensive team.

Cardoso has come out to defend himself by saying his team did not deploy a defensive approach but played the best way they could face any tough opponent to succeed.

“I think people in Tunisia developed an idea regarding me as a coach that is not exactly correct – even in the last weeks I heard again people saying that we are defensive, that I’m a coach that has a defensive approach,” defended Cardoso as quoted by SABC Sports.

“And I always told you [media] that is not exactly correct – what we tried to do was play a Champions League quarter-final against a team that is very strong. If you want to succeed playing in a team like Esperance, Al Ahly, Al HIlal, Pyramids, AS FAR, whoever the teams are competing, and [Orlando] Pirates, in the quarter-final – to move forward you must be very complete as a team, you can never be naive.

Adapting to the realities, the qualities that I as a coach have been developing, because maybe in the beginning of my career I thought I would beat everybody the same way, but football taught me very easily that you need to adapt to the contexts. You cannot play the same way when you play in Radés against Esperance as when you play in Loftus, so you need to understand what [type of] game you are playing – and even during the game because there are games happening all the time.”

Sundowns will face Al Ahly in the last four with the first leg set for 18 April.