Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has addressed the mental hurdle the club has faced in the CAF Champions League.
Sundowns have not reached the final of the competition since winning the trophy in 2016, with Cardoso eliminating them in the semi-finals with Esperance Sportive de Tunis last season.
He’s ironically now on the other side as Sundowns, Esperance, Al Hilal, MC Alger, Al Ahly, Orlando Pirates and Pyramids are the last eight this season.
“To arrive in the last stages of the competition you need to have a wonderful mindset and mostly also strong collective behaviours, and in the second half [against ASFAR], we were not on that level,” Cardoso said.
“So, this team needs to grow, it’s clear, it needs to grow. Because we’re going to play matches against these strong teams in the competition, we’re one of them, so the other teams also need to worry about us.
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“But indeed it’s important to manage time, manage the games, control the game without the ball sometimes because the other teams also have quality but also control the game also with the ball, something we did so well in the first half, finding the spaces.
“But in the second half, we just lost the sense that we could continue to play like that, we weren’t able, we played some long balls, going up together on the pitch, losing the ball and then allowing us to attack also.
“Of course this is maturity, it’s needed to help in the next rounds of the competition, this will be necessary, not only in the Champions League but necessary in the tough games the PSL always gives, and the next one is on Wednesday playing with fatigue from this game.
“We have to deal with Magesi away, we have to be ready and it will be a tough game, so we expect the team to grow day after day – but I think we can do better with time, for sure.”
Sundowns now turn their attention to Magesi on Wednesday before the Nedbank Cup tie against Golden Stars.