Miguel Cardoso Refuses to Panic After Mamelodi Sundowns Share Points in Champions League Clash

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso expressed his frustration following a 2-2 draw against Al-Hilal Omdurman in a CAF Champions League Group C fixture on Friday, stating his team had only themselves to blame for the result.

The South African side fell behind to an early goal from Abdelrazig Omer but managed to turn the game around. Arthur Sales found the equaliser before Teboho Mokoena put Sundowns ahead with a spectacular second-half strike.

However, with victory seemingly secured, Sundowns allowed Omer to score his second of the night, forcing them to share the points with the Sudanese club.

PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Google News, Stay informed with Latest Sport News

“Fortunately, we can only complain about ourselves,” Cardoso told SABC Sport after the match. He lamented his team's inability to convert their numerous chances and criticised their defensive lapse. “I think they entered our box two times and scored. Pretty naive from our defence.”

The coach emphasised that at this level of competition, such mistakes are costly. “This is the level of football where you cannot do those kinds of things. You have to finish the game,” he said. “We had more than enough chances, and we need to be clinical in the box.”

Miguel Cardoso was clearly disappointed with his team's failure to secure the win despite dominating the match.

"This is really serious in terms of responsibility and incapacity to score, because we played the game, we controlled, we had total control. I think we had more than enough today to have a victory."

“We cannot expose ourselves to being penalised by one situation. There was nothing more in the game other than that situation,” he continued.

“Suddenly, you’re winning, and you allow a goal like that. We created much more than we needed to... we had to be clinical and score the goals as it should’ve happened.”

Despite the dropped points, Mamelodi Sundowns remain at the top of Group C with five points from three games. With three matches still to play, Cardoso is not panicking.

“Of course, there’s a match on Friday, three matches to play. Obviously, we have five points. Last season, this situation was even more critical,” he noted.

“We are comfortable; no one can go in front of us. It’s a tough group with four difficult teams, and of course, it would’ve been important today to score the goals and win the match as we should’ve done.”