With the club opting against allowing supporters in their team regalia to gain free entry, the attendance was decent but not enough, the coach argued.

The Brazilians were held to a goalless draw by the title holders and now travel to Cairo to try settle the fixture on Friday evening.

Cardoso, however, believes they could have used their home ground advantage to good effect had Sundowns enjoyed a full crowd behind them.

"Of course, I'm very happy that our fans today helped us but it's so sad to see such a beautiful stadium almost empty when you have a semi-final of the Champions League. We should have a full stadium supporting us, giving us extra energy that 20% that also motivates you in the front,” Cardoso said.

“It's so tough to play these kinds of games, the best players in Africa are playing this match and that is something because sometimes people ask me, what is the difference between the northern African teams and the southern Africa teams, it's also that.

“In Cairo, you have a 90 000 stadium from the first to the last minute giving energy, whatever happens on the pitch and today, despite we felt energy from our fans, we should have a full stadium, a full South Africa in this stadium."

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Ahly have requested to sell out the Cairo International Stadium when they face Sundowns in the return leg at the 75 000-seater.

Cardoso wants to see an improvement in presence from their own spectators but is confident Downs will not be fazed by the atmosphere in Egypt.

"That should happen with the matches from Stellenbosch and from Orlando Pirates, the same and we didn't. Unfortunately, I could not look behind, but I think the stands behind me were quite okay,” the coach added.

“Still, the rest of the stadium was unfortunately not at the level of this game and that also could help with some energy. Hence, it's important that the next matches that we play at home, championship, because we have very tough championship matches ahead that our supporters can come in numbers and give us the energy we need because to get over these kind of teams, you need everybody to play.

“The players, the coaches, the staff and the fans, everybody but we believe we'll cope with that energy that will come from the outside in Cairo, the stadium is huge but it's little bit like in Tunisia. It has the running track and our players have such mentality that when you beat them once, you believe that you can beat them again, that's what happened today in the pitch.

“How we're gonna do it? We'll find [a way] but we'll try our best."

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