Cardoso admits Sundowns struggled to break down Golden Arrows

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said his side had to work hard to overcome Golden Arrows’ defensive organisation after reaching the Carling Knockout Cup semi-finals.

The Brazilians secured a narrow 1-0 victory at Loftus Versfeld, with Iqraam Rayners scoring the only goal of the match with a second-half header.

Cardoso described the quarter-final as a tense and tactical contest, while praising Abafana Bes’thende for making it difficult for Sundowns to create openings.

“Of course, not many goals and when there’s not many goals it seems that the game is not as… But it was, it was a very tactical match,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV after the game.

“It had a lot of intensity, with a lot of difficulties to break that defensive structure of Golden Arrows.”

The Sundowns manager said his team had expected Arrows to defend in a compact shape and had planned to move the ball across the pitch to create opportunities to penetrate.

“We played them, we knew that it was important to have a lot of players outside to shift the game from one side to the other, make them go across to one side to the other and try from there to penetrate,” he said.

Cardoso felt Sundowns could have taken control earlier, saying they had chances to go ahead before the interval.

“I think we could have scored even in the first half and take the lead,” he added.

However, he was satisfied with the discipline and consistency his players maintained until Rayners’ decisive contribution secured their place in the last four.

“But yeah, the team was focused, kept the stability on the behaviours and naturally the things happened, so congratulations for the boys.”

Sundowns will now wait to discover their semi-final opponents. The other three Carling Knockout Cup quarter-final matches are scheduled to take place during the upcoming weekend.