Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says he doesn’t expect a hostile reception when he returns to Tunisia and believes there won’t be any crowd trouble in their second leg CAF Champions League quarter-final.
Sundowns secured their first-ever win over Esperance in the Champions League with a 1-0 victory in the first leg as Peter Shalulile scored at Loftus Versfeld, leaving the quarter-final tie evenly poised for the return leg in Rades.
However, there’s several facets of the fixture that will determine who progresses to the semi-final; from the violent scenes of scuffles between fans at full-time, to Cardoso returning to his former club, that he led to victory over Sundowns in the last-four, last season.
The Portugese tactician has played down the notion that he could be walking into a hostile environment towards him, nor something that should be a concern as compared to the more jovial atmosphere in South African football at stadiums.
“I don’t expect to be booed when I arrive there, I know how I came out at Esperance, and the relationship I have with the fans, but anyway, whatever it is, I always take boos and whistles as fear,” Cardoso said.
“So, I respect people a lot, but I am just on the other side. I was telling you before the match started, the fact that we are on different sides, does not make us enemies, it just makes us exactly what we are, playing on another side.
“What to expect? I hope I can keep my emotions the right way, so at all times I have big respect for the opponents, because they are just friends, colleagues, other people that is trying to do the same job we are trying to do.
“They also pray to God, sometimes to the same God – so why should we position ourselves in a different way rather than understanding it’s a football game, it’s a show.
Having won the Tunisian Ligue 1 before eventually being fired in October 2024, Cardoso said he experienced some chaotic fixtures in the domestic league and rivals fans clashed in the Tunis derby, as the match was halted four times and eventually continued after they were all expelled from the stadium.
However, he noted that the continental games have different emotions, higher levels of security and more civil, joyous behaviour, from his own experiences with Taraji.
“There… Champions League matches have a different ambience from the ones in the league because the rules CAF induces in the matches are obviously very important to be respected, the ambience in the stadium becomes more positive and less aggressive, rather than what you get in the league,” Cardoso explained.
“I played Esperance vs Club Africain, and I wanted to go home, I wanted to go home and leave my club in that moment. It was fights, fights, but pure fights. In the warm-up, everyone entered the pitch.
“The game was stopped four times – there was lacrimogenic gas, there was people falling on the spaces around the pitch. Then everyone was put out and we played until the end without people in the stands.”
He continued: “But that spirit is because of rivalry between Club Africain and Esperance, I don’t expect that, people in Champions League games and in general behave well, they like football, they enjoy football, and they just want to cheer and push their team forward.
“I don’t expect that ambience, I confess most of my beautiful, or more beautiful memories from matches, come from there, you will see lights around the stadium, singing all the time, it reminds me of Anfield, where I played against Liverpool in Europa League when I was an assistant coach with Braga.
“It reminds me sometimes of that and it’s how we should live football, forget everything around and accept, with fair play, whatever happens and just hope the best team wins and I hope we can continue to be the best team as we were today.”
