Miguel Cardoso explains how they beat Al Ahly SC

Africa 26 April 2025 at 10:52

Miguel Cardoso revealed the psychological reasons why the semi-finals went in their favour and made them qualify for the final deservedly instead of the hosts, Al Ahly SC.

Trust was the key to everything

Talking about the mental factor, the Portuguese coach focused on the mental aspect and what the team was able to achieve in this match by relying on this aspect during the game.

Trust, trust, no doubt, trust on the way we have been living this experience together, trust on the quality of each other, trust in the game plan for the match, trust that even when we were losing 1-0 we could score, trust that whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with new history that had to be written in Cairo.

Cardoso, as quoted by FARPost.

We trust in a club that supports and gives [us] [the resources] to work hard, and trust in our families that are at home, the love we receive, trust in our supporters that are in South Africa. Basically, in brotherhood, we trust.

Cardoso concluded.

Miguel Cardoso's reaction to Al Ahly's style

While everyone was shocked by the way Al Ahly handled the game defensively, Miguel Cardoso gave a full analysis of what Marcel Koller's side had to offer.

Well, eventually yes I was surprised but I understand why they were defensive because I think that in the last nine matches, Al Ahly have not beaten Mamelodi Sundowns, Teams had to take care of each other because we knew that conceding a goal would make things bad, “We did a lot of changes in the second-half in order to become more aggressive, and we lost a little bit of creativity, but we had more aggression in the front. But in the end, we deserved it even though we have respect for Al Ahly.

Miguel Cardoso concluded,

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