Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says Pyramids produced that extra bit of commitment that helped them secure a 3-2 aggregate win in the Champions League final.
While he’s been consistent in his opinion of finer details separating teams in the competition, with the level of quality in each squads similar in the knockout stages of the competition, Cardoso felt there was a little bit extra from the Egyptian side.
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“When I say it’s important to compete in the high level, it’s what I have been saying all season when playing Champions League matches, by the journalists in South Africa, why is it so difficult to play the teams from the North of Africa,” Cardoso said.
“These teams compete, they play football, they compete at a very high level, every duel is a life-changer, every ball they fight for with all the energy they have and in some moments, I felt that there was something missing from our part.
“So that the game we play can appear more on the pitch, I don’t think they are worse in football playing than Pyramids, I think this was shown in both matches, Pyramids were very competent, very capable, to position in a way we wanted.
“But most of all they gave their life in every ball they were playing for, that at this level, sometimes makes a difference, that’s what made a lot of difference in the final. Despite we can complain about how the goals appeared, but that’s what’s in my mind at the moment.”
Cardoso, who lost in the final of the competition last season too, when he was in charge of Esperance Sportive de Tunis against Al Ahly says they may have left it too late to be more confrontational and take control of proceedings.
“It’s not a matter of accepting we lost but accepting we didn’t play the game… the first three parts of the game we didn’t play at the level we should have played, and we needed to get up in a different way to fight,” he continued.
“When we did, we got up and looked them in their eyes, and didn’t worry about what was on the other side, how they played. We just worried about what we had to do, we could have even won.
“In the second half, the last 20-25 minutes, sometimes you can get that goal needed for victory, but we can’t forget what was played before, I have to be honest with ourselves and our players, the feeling I have, I think they also have, it’s human, it’s normal.
“We have international players but playing finals is another thing, let’s focus on what we can do in the future and pick energy for that.”
Sundowns will now begin preparing for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States of America, where they are grouped alongside Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, and Ulsan.
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