Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says there’s no room for complacency against a Stade Malien who earned plaudits from across the continent for the group stage exploits.
The West African giants stunned many by topping their group ahead of Esperance Sportive de Tunis – who eliminated Al Ahly last night – Petro de Luanda and Simba SC – all three who are regulars in the knockout phase of the competition.
However, Sundowns, who finished group runners-up behind Al Hilal, coasted past them with a 3-0 thumping in Tshwane last week to put one foot into the semi-final, which Cardoso rejects is the case as a forgone conclusion.
“It’s a pleasure to be here in Bamako and play Stade Malien, it’s my first time here, always an experience and pleasure – what is important is that we face this match a qualifier not focusing what we have done in Pretoria,” he said.
“We have to relate and fight for the result in this match, start strong and basically consider that in the end we want to proceed and for that we need a serious approach.
“We’re playing against a team, that results speak for itself, especially here at home, they made a group stage that was so strong and positive, that earned praise from everybody. So we need to focus on ourselves, what we want as a team, as a club and be strict and committed from the first to last minute of the match.”
Sundowns winger, Tashreeq Matthews echoed the sentiments of Cardoso, saying they go into every fixture aiming for a win; “It’s a second leg match we have but we have a very important task, to get victory…
“It doesn’t matter about the previous result we had, we come here, to be true to our mentality, and culture of the club is to play every game for a victory.”
