Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has explained why they started slowly against Magesi after a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
Sundowns conceded within 12 minutes from a header by Wonderboy Makhubu and while they struggled to find their rhythm, parity was restored on the hour mark when Lucas Ribeiro Costa equalised.
Masandawana had a goal disallowed in the closing stages before Tashreeq Matthews scored the winner in the dying minutes.
Cardoso says conceding first and early affected their game plan, with the issue of fatigue.
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"We knew that we should make a very strong first-half, because in the second-half we could pay from some of the fatigue from the previous match, if you remember we played 72 hours ago and a (CAF) Champions League match," Cardoso said on SuperSport.
"But we didn't do it, we suffered an incredible goal in a moment we had a player injured, we stopped a little bit, the reaction was very late and to overcome that difficulty mentally it was very tough.
"So first half was very tough mentally and instead of reacting the proper way we let this fatigue feeling in ourselves. At halftime we had to do something to change the story of the game."
The Brazilians brought on Arthur Sales and Matthews at half-time, who were both instrumental in both the goals.
"When brought some energy, attitude, we just needed to get one goal because I knew the energy would be on our side. So I'm happy that we did it in the second-half. We still had 20 minutes to make it for the second one. I think we deserved it but very good job also from Magesi, very tough game here. I think teams struggle here. Good result after a tough week," Cardoso said.
The Portuguese coach also explained why they largely kept the same side that drew 1-1 with FAR Rabat on Sunday.
"After we suffered in the first minutes of the first-half, it's easy to say the team was tired. What we wanted was to make 45 minutes high intensity but then we had to deal with the difficulty, it was difficult," Cardoso went on.
"The pitch is slow, it doesn't allow us to pass the ball quickly and then we have to view it in fortune because we had to make immediately one substitution from Mudau, then we had another one second-half from Thapelo, so a very tough game emotionally.
"So we overcame the difficulty, this will make us stronger for sure, I'm very happy because of that."