Ahead of his side’s FIFA CWC Group F decider against Fluminense, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has expressed how rare it is for his side to concede four goals and it’s something they will try to avoid tonight.
Sundowns lost 4-3 to German side Borussia Dortmund last time out and the result saw them drop to third place in the pool with three points which opened the group leaving three sides in with a shot of advancing to the round of 16.
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A win for either side will see them progress while a draw may not be enough for the South African champions.
Cardoso says the circumstances of the previous game led to the leakage of goals and that his charges understand that if they concede that many goals at the Hard Rock Stadium, they will come back home.
“It’s not normal to suffer four goals for Mamelodi Sundowns,” said Cardoso at the pre-match press conference.
“With me it never happened. The maximum goals we suffered since I’m in the club was two goals and even two goals is very rare. So obviously we played that game in a very discomfortable zone but it’s also not normal for any team to score three goals against Borussia Dortmund. So, when you analyse the situation, you need to understand where you want to look at it.
“We know that if we suffer four goals from Fluminense we lose the game for sure. So, we have to be more complete. We also understand that, that game was not normal. It was very normal in terms of how the game appeared but if you really understand almost all the goals in the game appeared from situations that there was some incident. Even the fourth goal is a reflection on our defender. We are usually quite strong on defence. We know that a little bit like Fluminense we do have the capacity to control the game with the ball rather than without it.
“What we need is to try and manage the game as much as possible in the moments we have the ball and also to manage the rhythm of the game, to try to always be together with the players in the different parts of the pitch, both the defence and attack so that we travel together everywhere. We expect a very competitive match where the teams will obviously take care of their defence, have to organise themselves very strongly to avoid the quality of the players that can score for both teams not only with us.
“But at the same time, I don’t expect a close game, I expect the teams to fight for a result. Both teams want to win but even when you have that desire you need to be cautious in moments of the game.”
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