Miguel Cardoso pleased with Sundowns’ progress despite narrow Arrows win

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says his side could have secured a more convincing victory over Lamontville Golden Arrows but was satisfied with their performance in Tuesday’s Carling Knockout Cup quarter-final.

Sundowns booked their place in the semi-finals with a hard-fought 1-0 home victory, thanks to Iqraam Rayners’ 69th-minute strike.

The result means the South African champions have reached the semi-finals of two domestic cup competitions this season, having lifted the MTN8 trophy last month.

Cardoso admitted his team had opportunities to settle the contest much earlier but praised their patience and discipline in sticking to the tactical approach.

The Portuguese coach revealed that Sundowns created two clear scoring opportunities within the opening five minutes but failed to capitalise on them.

“Obviously, we could have made it easier in terms of the result. We had chances to score immediately in the first five minutes. I think we had two clear chances to score,” he said.

“What’s interesting to see is that the team didn’t deviate from the plan and was focused enough to keep on playing as we wanted.”

Cardoso explained that Sundowns deliberately used the width of the pitch to overcome an Arrows side that defended compactly through the middle.

He said his players were instructed to stretch their opponents by attacking from both flanks and creating spaces in central areas.

“We needed to take the ball out wide, left and right, to move Arrows, then try to find spaces. They are a team that closes the centre of the pitch very well, so it’s quite difficult to penetrate through the middle,” he added.

The former FC Porto coach also disclosed that he made tactical adjustments at half-time to improve his team’s control of possession and take advantage of the opposition’s physical decline.

He was particularly keen to avoid a situation where Sundowns would become desperate for a goal and leave themselves vulnerable to Arrows’ counter-attacking threat.

“We had to make a few corrections in terms of positional play at half-time because we needed to control the ball better. We knew that fatigue would obviously penalise the team that is chasing the ball,” Cardoso said.

“We didn’t want to get to a moment in the game where we would be stressed trying to find a goal and expose ourselves at the back because we knew there were quick players on the bench of the opponent, and coach Mandla Ncikazi is very clever.”

Cardoso said Rayners’ breakthrough was crucial, giving Sundowns greater control while putting pressure on their opponents to chase the game.

The victory keeps Sundowns’ hopes of adding another domestic cup trophy alive as they continue their pursuit of silverware this season.