Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has revealed the weakness they expected from Kaizer Chiefs.
Amakhosi downed the Brazilians 1-0 at the sold-out Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in the Betway Premiership clash.
A first-half strike from Brazilian forward Lucas Ribeiro Costa proved decisive in what, at times, seemed like a tightly contested Betway Premiership encounter.
Cardoso, speaking after the match, said he expected Nasreddine Nabi’s troops to overload the midfield and believes that gave Sundowns opportunity to exploit the wings.
‘WE EXPECTED THIS FROM CHIEFS’
“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,” Cardoso explained.
“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.
“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.”
