Miguel Cardoso hails Lady Luck and Ronwen Williams’ heroics after Sundowns' CAF triumph

Mamelodi Sundowns’ CAF Champions League-winning coach, Miguel Cardoso, believes “a little bit of luck” was finally on his side over the two legs of the final.

The African showpiece was Cardoso’s third successive appearance — and second with Sundowns— in a CAF Champions League final. Having been on the losing side on the previous two occasions, Cardoso guided Sundowns to a 2–1 aggregate victory after holding hosts AS FAR to a 1–1 draw in the second leg in Rabat on Sunday.

“I do remember that last year, out of nothing, Pyramids scored a goal on our pitch. I also remember that last year, there was an own goal, or almost an unfortunate play from one of our players, that gave a goal to Pyramids. I remember the penalty in the first minute of the second match I played with Al Ahly against Espérance,” Cardoso said post-match.

I also remember a penalty that was not given in the last minute against Al Ahly. So, details will fall for one side. Well, what I think is fair enough is that this time they also fell for our side, because there are no champions without a little bit of luck in the right moments.”

Sundowns conceded two penalties in the second leg after the Somalian referee overturned his original on-field decisions following VAR consultations.

The first was converted by AS FAR captain Mohamed Hrimat, which levelled the tie on aggregate. But Sundowns captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams saved the second from Hrimat at a critical stage of the game to keep the scores deadlocked at 1–1.

Cardoso admitted that Williams’s save was a game-changer, as it killed off the hosts’ challenge.

“I think that this game took a lot of emotions. Positive emotions, and emotions that are not positive. Because, of course, if you're going to live emotions that put you on a line where you can't play the football that you want to play — as I said yesterday, it was important to always play the game on the level that we're used to playing.

“But if we go off the line of play that we have, of course, we're going to suffer. And that happened for a few moments in the second half. But after the penalty was missed, I think the game was over.”

Sundowns have now ended their 10-year pursuit of the continent’s prized asset, and in the process, secured their second title after their first in 2016.

The momentous victory also qualified the club for the 2029 Fifa Club World Cup, as well as the CAF Super Cup and the Fifa Intercontinental Cup next year.