Miguel Cardoso reprimands negative comment on Sundowns title win

Speaking on the eve of The Brazilians facing Pyramids in the return leg of the continental final in Cairo, the Portuguese mentor quickly pointed out to those who felt their recent achievement had been a foregone conclusion.

The question seemed to undermine the efforts it took for Sundowns to pip Orlando Pirates to the championship, Cardoso said.

He immediately set the record straight.

“It’s not because you won seven championships that you should not value winning eight or think that it is easy. When you see our opponents celebrating the cups that they were able to win in the last three years and recently this year, you understand how big your achievements regarding the championships,” Cardoso said.

“The way we won the national championship in South Africa is something that would stay for history because the best Orlando Pirates of their history stayed 11 points behind us.

“We broke all the records in the history or almost all of them. So, it’s not a thing that is repeated year after year. But takes or gives nothing to what is gonna happen today, that is another thing.”

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Cardoso didn’t dispute that the first leg at Loftus Stadium a week ago has given them a tough task as the away team in Cairo.

“Obviously we understand that we didn’t achieve the result we would like to have after the first match. We think that we could have played better than we did but that’s exactly where we stand now. Understanding that we can be better,” the coach added.

“Understanding that we have the will, the intention and the quality to do good things tomorrow but we also understand that we are playing football against one of the two teams that were the best in Africa last year.

“We need to take care of all moments of the game to answer your question. It’s not only worrying about the counterattacks from Pyramids, it’s to worry about organised attacks, about set pieces because they can score like we do from any moment.”