MTN8: Cardoso Refuses to Get Carried Away After Mamelodi Sundowns’ Draw Against Pirates
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has reflected on the Brazilians' 1-1 draw against Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 semi-final first leg over the weekend at the Orlando Stadium.
The Betway Premiership champions scored the first goal of the match through Teboho Mokoena’s headed opener, but the Soweto giants pegged back in the closing stages of the game as Kamogelo Sebelele cancelled out their opening goal.
Cardoso speaks on Sundowns' advantage ahead of 2nd leg
Cardoso, while speaking ahead of the second leg, claimed the draw doesn't feel like a defeat even though he wanted to head into the next match with a clean sheet.
“It’s a draw, and it doesn’t feel like a defeat,” Cardoso said after conceding a late equaliser against Orlando Pirates.
“Of course, we wanted to take the win home, but if you ask any coach whether they’d take a 1-1 from this game, they’d probably say yes. We’re only halfway through the tie, we would’ve liked to hold the advantage, but we didn’t.”
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Looking ahead to the second leg, Cardoso emphasised the importance of their away goal but knows it won’t be enough on its own.
“Scoring away is valuable, but it’s not a guarantee. It depends on how the second leg plays out. We know that if we keep the Pirates from scoring, we go through. But Pirates and Sundowns are both teams capable of finding the net—keeping them at zero won’t be easy.”
While being asked for his team's approach in the second leg after getting an away goal, the former Nantes coach claimed his team won't have a defensive mindset in their approach.
“If you go in just thinking about not conceding, you’re likely to concede. The goal is to win at home; if we do that, we go through. That’s our biggest advantage. Yes, the away goal rule helps, a 0-0 draw puts us through, but a 1-1 isn’t good enough, and a 2-2 puts us out. We know what we need to do.”
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Source: Briefly News
