Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns Media.
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has admitted that Kaizer Chiefs played a more improved game in their hard-fought 1-0 Betway Premiership win on Saturday.
The Brazilians went into the fixture having beaten Amakhosi twice already this season – 2-1 in the Carling Knockout quarter-finals clash and 4-1 in the first round fixture of the league – and they still managed to edge them out for vital points that increased their chances of winning a seventh straight league title at the end of the season.
A stunning first-half strike courtesy of Lucas Ribeiro, was all Sundowns needed at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium to claim the crucial win. Ribeiro latched onto a superb pass from Iqraam Rayners and unleashed a left-footed screamer from a tight angle, rocketing the ball into the top left corner past a helpless Bruce Bvuma.
“We expected that Chiefs would overload the midfield with numbers but we knew that would give opportunity’s on the sides, and we have capacity on the sides, that’s how we scored as you remember their full back… they had midfielders controlling the insdie,” said Cardoso after the game as quoted by idiskitimes.
“And their wingers controlling the insides, trying to close our build-ups inside, so their full-back was jumping on our full-back, but we knew then we have two in front and if we could attract one centre-back, eventually we could play the ball into the space.
“So Peter made that movement, Iqraam went into space, received the ball and he passed to Lucas to make the goal. As I said it’s the players who interpret things, it was a very hard game, very tactical, very well prepared by coach Nabi.”
The Portuguese added: “They have also good players and there’s an emotionality behind these kinds of matches, we don’t want to highlight it because our players are already tense for these games, so my approach is always low in demanding, just give them tools to find answers.
“Sometimes if goes well, sometimes not, this time it went well, I’m happy for that, but tough game, very tough game.”
The win pushed Sundowns to 54 points from 20 matches, helping them to cement their lead at the top of the 16-team table while Chiefs remained eighth with 25 points from 19 outings.
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