Miguel Cardoso has made a rare admission: Golden Arrows were very hard to break down, and it took a second-half Iqraam Rayners header to send Sundowns into the Carling Knockout semi-finals.

The Brazilians edged Abafana Bes’thende 1-0 at Loftus Versfeld in a tense, low-scoring battle. Cardoso praised the discipline of the Arrows backline, which kept Sundowns at bay for most of the game.

“Of course, not many goals and when there’s not many goals it seems that the game is not as…But it was, it was a very tactical match,” he said.

“It had a lot of intensity, with a lot of difficulties to break that defensive structure of Golden Arrows.”

He explained the plan. “We played them, we knew that it was important to have a lot of players outside to shift the game from one side to the other, make them go across to one side to the other and try from there to penetrate.”

Cardoso believes the lead should have come sooner. “I think we could have scored even in the first half and take the lead. But yeah, the team was focused, kept the stability on the behaviours and naturally the things happened, so congratulations for the boys.”

Sundowns now wait to learn their semi-final opponents. The remaining three quarterfinal ties are scheduled for the weekend. After the Champions League exit to Wiliete, the Carling Cup is keeping alive their hopes of silverware this season, and Rayners has become the man to deliver.

Sundowns have another shot at silverware as they host USM Alger in the Caf Super Cup on Sunday afternoon.

Visit MDNtv YouTube Channel for our video content