Downs coach happy rotation did not backfire against Stellies

The Brazilians were 1-0 winners to move three points clear of Orlando Pirates on the log table, a big result for Cardoso in his first league game after also beating Raja Casablanca in the Champions League on Sunday.

He applauded the players that got the job done having had to rotate the starting line-up for the trip to Cape Town.

"First of all, I would like to praise my players, we are playing 72 hours time from our last game such as Stellenbosch obviously. So, the conditions are very difficult to play in terms of recovery,” Cardoso said.

“We are playing also with some small issues that made us change the squad and in a pitch with a turf quite long making the game more slow and that's why I want to praise the players for the effort they made in the right moments and from the very beginning make the game positive for our side.

“A very difficult game against a very strong team, playing in a very detailed and characteristic way that doesn't allow us to press too much because in two, three touches they use the players in the front.

“So, quite difficult to manage the game without the ball. So, we tried from the very beginning to control it with the ball, trying to arrive in scoring areas using the spaces that we were provided.

“We could find the back of the defense a lot due to the fact that they also moved up in the pitch in order to press us and I think the story of the game at half-time is the goals that we should have done so that we could be more comfortable."

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Cardoso admitted Stellies, who beat them twice in the MTN8 earlier this season, gave them a scare at times which affected how Sundowns finished the game.

"Obviously naturally second half especially the last part of the second half was more hard for us in terms of managing it. There were a lot of emotions also put on the pitch in terms of managing the result obviously and trying to get it, considering what had happened in the last two times we faced Stellenbosch,” the coach added.

“So, there was a big commitment trying to hold [on] as much as possible to the result. I just think we could have done and been cleverer in the moment, we could arrive on the goal and make the second goal. So, quite a hard game, quite a wonderful result.”