Cardoso ready to guide Sundowns against his old club

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso admitted he would have preferred to play his old team Esperance de Tunis in the final of the Caf Champions League, rather than the quarterfinals.

Sundowns host Esperance, who Cardoso steered to the 2024 final, where they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Al Ahly, in the first leg of the quarterfinal at Loftus Versfeld on Tuesday (3pm), with the second leg in Tunis on April 8.

On the way to the final, the 52-year-old Portuguese schemed the Sundowns of Rulani Mokwena’s 2-0 aggregate semifinal demise.

Cardoso said he still has great affection for the Tunisian giants, but it is all about competition come kickoff at Loftus.

“It’s obviously not like a match where you were playing Raja Casablanca, Al Ahly or Simba because with Esperance there’s a legacy we left there,” Downs coach said.

“We made people happy, we lived through wonderful moments together. There’s love that’s still there and I have big respect from the people who stayed there from the management and from the fans most of all.

“But everybody needs to understand that’s just one side of the question. When I prepare the match I need to think with the head, for Esperance or any other team.

“Obviously I didn’t want to play Esperance [in the quarters] — I would have like to play that final, whether with Pirates or Esperance. But not being possible we need to do it in a professional way,” he said.

“I usually enter the pitch at the last minute [before a game] and not always, but sometimes, I leave it very quickly; some other times I stay — it depends how I have to deal with my emotions. Because if I feel I need five minute’s break to then calm other things I also reserve myself.

“But in this game I will do the same. The fact that I will be with people [opponents] I like will have nothing to do with the job we have to do. That’s how I’m facing the situation.”