Miguel Cardoso: We know in Africa we are one of the biggest teams

The Brazilians take on Ulsan HD of Japan in their opener on Tuesday before facing Germany’s Borussia Dortmund and Brazil’s Fluminense in Group F. 

Cardoso says the Club World Cup is the ideal tournament to test just how good the CAF Champions League runners-up and serial Betway Premiership champions are.

"That's exactly the question because, from what I feel, everybody's pretty proud on one side of being in that competition, but at the same time, with the responsibility of knowing that they want to perform," said Cardoso.

"The mindset in the club is very strong towards performance, achieving goals and winning trophies, and obviously we know where we stand, but we also know our ambitions and where we want to go.

"We understand the reality, but we're willing to make our best in every challenge we face, and that's also a test for us [to see] which level we're at, because we know in Africa we are one of the biggest teams.

"But we also want to understand on which level we can be regarding different realities in the world, and obviously for myself, as a coach coming from Europe and having already worked in France's Ligue 1, Spain's La Liga, Greece, Ukraine, and Portugal, of course.

"So I have quite a [good] idea of the level of teams and players, but it's quite challenging to understand that teams will make a big difference, and we want to be very strong as a team.

"We know we have very important players, but we want to be very strong as a team when we arrive [back] in the Champions League."

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