Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso admits Kaizer Chiefs gave his team a good match but had to be patient and wait for their moments to secure the win.
Sundowns won the match 1-0 thanks to Lucas Ribeiro’s 41st minute strike, to extend their lead at the top of the table to 18 points, and make it three wins over Chiefs this season.
Cardoso says Chiefs, who had last played nearly a fortnight ago, gave his tired team a hard time but they had to stay in the game and keep an eye on any opportunities to strike.
“It was a very tough match due to different things. First, it was clear that Chiefs made a good game and my team was tired from the beginning so there was no freshness in our players in order to play football as fluid as we play,” Cardoso told SABC.
Cardoso thrilled by his team’s approach
“So, the decisions on the pitch were not clear to have and not with freshness and placement and intensity even defensively, we were more difficult to press. But I told the boys today the team should be highlighted and the organisation that we have should be very important and keep us in the match and try to look for our moments.
“That is what happened, we used a very precise moment when there was a good spell on Peter [Shalulile] and then there was a moment of space and due to that, we scored and after that, it was belief. I told them at halftime to have courage and have trust to play this match.”
Cardoso further says that he had to shuffle his pack to add some fresh legs in the contest as the match was so competitive given the approach from Chiefs.
The Portuguese tactician then went into details over how the decisive moment happened, when Iqraam Rayners beat the offside trap to square to Ribeiro who slammed home, after Sundowns had created some space on the left when Peter Shalulile dragged a Chiefs defender with him.
How did Sundowns kill off Chiefs?
“His [Ribeiro] technical action was fantastic indeed but it comes out from a collective moment because we knew that the full-backs of Chiefs were jumping on our full-back so if we could attract a centre-back on our first striker,” Cardoso added.
“Then if there is movement from Lucas [Ribeiro] because it is Peter who had the attraction of the centre-back and then diagonal we could find space. That is what happened and we could score from and then of course, we need to have quality to make these kinds of shots. Congratulations to him but to the team also because of very hard work.”
Cardoso’s team now occupy top spot with 54 points from 20 matches, 18 ahead of second-placed Orlando Pirates, who have four matches in hand.
