Cardoso expecting Espérance to maintain identity
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach, Miguel Cardoso says despite his former team, Espérance Sportive de Tunis having two coaches post his departure to Mamelodi Sundowns, he expects the Tunisians to retain their identity.
Cardoso was speaking from his club’s training base in Johannesburg ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s mouth-watering clash against his former side in the quarter-finals of the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League in Pretoria.
The Portuguese coach was on the Tunisian club’s bench where he orchestrated heartache for his current club with a 1-0 aggregate win that saw Sundowns crash out of the competition in the semi-finals of last season’s TotalEnergies CAF Champions League.
Now with the South African champions, the former Espérance coach is tasked with doing the same for his current club against his former employers over two exciting legs to set for 1 and 8 April 2025.
“The team changed since we left. The has been different players that have come into the team, so the team is different from the one Sundowns played last year in terms of players and style of play”, cautioned Cardoso.
“Many months have passed, two coaches after me have coached Espérance and this new coach will of course bring something new to the team but we expect Espérance to be loyal to the identity of Esperance. This is a club with an identity of how they play and their systems. We will have to prepare like we would for a quarter-final match and how we set up ourselves, while paying attention to how they can attack us”, said Cardoso.
Commenting on his club’s chances of advancing to the next round, the 52-year-old coach pointed out that Tuesday’s match must be seen as a first half, as the knock out stages are played over two difficult home and away legs.
“These matches are not 90-minute matches. This is just the first half, and we need to understand that whatever happens tomorrow, there is still another 90 minutes to play and it is the outcome of those two matches that will determine who goes ahead” concluded the coach.
Kick-off at the Loftus Stadium is at 15h00 Local Time (13h00 GMT).