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Cardoso credits Sundowns' quality for fourth straight win

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has admitted that the quality of his players decided the game after a 2-0 win over Richards Bay.

Goals in either half by Arthur Sales and Lucas Ribeiro Costa extended Sundowns' lead at the top of the standings to six points, in a very tight game.

Cardoso has revealed that the conditions did not allow them to play their free-flowing football.

READ | Sales Ribeiro seal top spot for Downs ahead of 2025

"Tough game, I'm happy obviously for the result and the satisfaction of watching our fans happy and the work our players did but very difficult conditions to play, the pitch very dry," Cardoso said on SuperSport.

"It was obvious that many moments we wanted to play but difficult to play, anyway we had the attitude, the patience and the quality in certain moments to define the game. It's important that you use your moments.

"Obviously we can do better but praise the players for the effort, the commitment and the attitude to keep on playing on very difficult conditions," Cardoso said.

The Portuguese coach also conceded and explained why their tactics in the domestic league are different.

"We would like to be very aggressive in the moment we lose the ball, to attack immediately the ball. The question is, in the last three games we played in the championship, the teams don't hold the ball, they just want to kick it in the front," Cardoso went on.

"So it's very difficult, when you want to press, they are already putting the ball on the flanks or at the back of your defence. It's quite tricky, so we need also to understand how tricky the situations can be, deal with them.

"Don't be naive, because when you're naive, you will suffer goals from this kind of a game. Very difficult, we needed to be very active in rest defence to balance the team and we did it and need to continue, in the right games we will be able to be strong to win the ball when we lose it."

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