Miguel Cardoso relieved as Mamelodi Sundowns edge past Gomora United

Miguel Cardoso would obviously have loved for Mamelodi Sundowns to have won their Nedbank Cup encounter against Motsepe Foundation Championship side Gomora United much more comfortably than last night’s 2-1 result at Loftus Versfeld.

But the Portuguese coach was not complaining; not when his team had given him what many would see as a reprieve from an unforgiving fan base that would surely have bayed for his blood had the outcome been negative.

Forced to run the gauntlet of angry supporters in the team’s last outing at Loftus following a 1-1 draw with Al Hilal, he went into the match having lost away to the Sudanese club in the CAF Champions League.

But goals from Peter Shalulile and Thapelo Morena either side of the half-time break ensured the Premiership champions put away a Gomora side that made a contest of a tie Sundowns were expected to win at a canter.

No wonder Cardoso was in a jovial mood when he walked into the auditorium of the famous Pretoria arena, exchanging pleasantries with the media in his native Portuguese and even making fun of a social media post about his red Ferrari.

“I am happy in general with the boys and looking forward to the next competition. We are one step ahead (into the next round), though there are several more to give. But this one is done.”

It was done with some difficulty. Sundowns fluffed numerous chances early on before Shalulile put them ahead, only for their defence to ‘gift’ the opposition the equaliser in stoppage time before half-time.

“It’s important that we understand that these games, sometimes we can wrap them up very quickly,” Cardoso lamented of their failure to make dominance count.

“After a second goal, the energy of opponents drops. When we don’t do it, we are always fuelling the opponents’ expectations. But both the goals we scored were wonderful and we had situations to score more.”

He admitted, however, that making as many changes to his regular starting line-up as he did was always going to compromise them. Cardoso gave the talismanic Themba Zwane his first start since August, while goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse played for the first time since 2023, alongside several peripheral players in the initial 11.

“When we bring in players who have not been playing and we mix everything, we cannot expect the fluidity to be perfect. What we had to expect was that the attitude is always maximum, and I think that was the intention from everyone.

"Still, the half-time result was not fair and we had to look forward to bringing in new energy.”

Sundowns’ next match is a tough CAF Champions League tie in the Democratic Republic of Congo against St Eloi Lupopo on Sunday.