{"id":28639,"date":"2026-03-13T11:21:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28639"},"modified":"2026-03-13T11:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:21:03","slug":"cardoso-laments-lack-of-support-for-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/cardoso-laments-lack-of-support-for-sundowns-in-caf-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardoso laments lack of support for Sundowns in CAF Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has bemoaned the lack of support from football authorities in the country in their CAF Champions League campaign.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The Brazilians will meet Stade Malien from Mali in a quarterfinal first leg encounter at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, on Friday evening.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Cardoso\u2019s outcry stems from the fact that his team played against Orbit College in the Betway Premiership just a few days before the crucial match.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Sundowns have a busy schedule competing in the Betway Premiership and the CAF Champions League. They beat Orbit College 2-nil in the league on Tuesday night and they will face Stade Malien in the CAF Champions League on Friday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Next week, they will host Marumo Gallants on Tuesday before locking horns with the Malians in Bamako next weekend. Cardoso, is not a happy man.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cFrom the seven teams no one has matches in between the two legs, Stade Malien have nine days to prepare for this match, Esperance have seven days to prepare, Al Ahly have six days to prepare, AS Far has six days, Pyramids five days to prepare, Berkane six days, Al Hilal 12 days and all teams don\u2019t play between matches.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Stade Malien was the surprise package in the group stage, finishing on top of the group that also featured Tunisians Esperance, Angolans Petro de Luanda and Tanzanians Simba.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Cardoso is expecting two very tough matches against the Malians.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe expect two tough matches, there are no underdogs anymore, we will face a team that finished first in a group that had very big teams, but we know what we are capable of.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Sundowns will be aiming to go all the way in the competition this season after losing to Pyramids from Egypt in the final last season. They are also on a good run, winning seven matches in a row in the league this year. Defender Grant Kekana says they have prepared well for the match.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cAs players we are in good spirits. We are also on a good run; the confidence is high especially going into this stage of the Champions League. We know what is expected but we have prepared quite well and we know what is expected from us.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The Malians made history by reaching the Champions League quarterfinal for the first time this season and they will be the underdogs against former champions Sundowns.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Speaking through an interpreter, their coach Mauril Mesack Njoya says they are here to compete.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cFootball has a lot of surprises. the so-called small teams can beat big teams, we go for a win against all the teams, and the Champions League is where we want to be.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21088,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-28639","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sundowns will be aiming to go all the way in the competition this season after losing to Pyramids from Egypt.","published_date":"","news_description":"Sundowns will be aiming to go all the way in the competition this season after losing to Pyramids from Egypt.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28640,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28639\/revisions\/28640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}