Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has explained why his players were cautious in the 3-0 Betway Premiership win against SuperSport United on Wednesday.
In the Tshwane Derby at Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium, Jayden Adams opened the scoring in the 11th minute, setting the tone for the match. Tashreeq Matthews added two more goals to seal the win, with assists coming from key players like Lucas Ribeiro Costa and Peter Shalulile.
“Today was important to play a secure match, trying to get the emotional advantage from scoring first of course and also asked the guys at halftime to enter to make a fifth goal to make some player rotations because it’s important to manage the effort of the players,” Cardoso told SuperSport after the game as quoted by KickOff.
“I don’t want to lose players; we are in a very tight schedule and difficulties to manage it. So, we played the game we had to play. There were moments we had to control it mostly and without even accelerating too much just trying to protect ourselves from the efforts we don’t need to do because we need to work like that.
“We understood that they made several tactical changes in the first half in order to try and complicate our task and we answered according to that. I think it was a beautiful game in that aspect in terms of tactical approach from both coaches and trying to give answer to what was happening inside the pitch.”
He continued: “Basically, it’s our job to help our players to give them tools. Halftime was very important to make some to put the guys on the mindset to finish the game and we managed to get it done.”
Sundowns have won five of the last seven Tshwane Derbies, underlining their supremacy in the fixture.
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