Mamelodi Sundowns Coach Miguel Cardoso Slams Saint Eloi Lupopo After Frustrating Champions League Draw

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has voiced his frustration with Saint Eloi Lupopo's on-field strategy following their CAF Champions League draw in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The South African powerhouse was held to a 1-1 stalemate in a tense Group C encounter at the Stade TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi.

The result sees Mamelodi Sundowns slip to third place in the group with six points, trailing Rulani Mokwena's MC Alger by a single point ahead of their decisive final group stage match.

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Saint Eloi Lupopo remain at the bottom of the table and are set to face Al Hilal. However, the group remains wide open, with all four teams still having a chance to advance to the quarterfinals.

While not entirely displeased with his team's effort, Miguel Cardoso was highly critical of what he perceived as Saint Eloi Lupopo's deliberate attempts to disrupt the flow of the game through time-wasting and simulation.

"After they scored, more energy came for Lupopo, more energy came from the stands, the intention of pressing and trying to disrupt our game, and a lot of theatre as well," Cardoso stated, according to the Kick Off.

"A lot of stops, a lot of players falling down here and there. We need to understand that it gives nothing to football in the future."

The coach argued that such tactics are detrimental to the sport's development on the continent and called for stronger officiating to combat them.

"It's not the way football should develop in a country, or in Africa in general. It's something that really needs to be fought by referees, and today it was not," he continued.

"So every time we had a chance or a moment of energy, there was someone falling down. But okay, we had to fight against that."

In addition to the opposition's tactics, Miguel Cardoso also pointed to the poor condition of the pitch at Stade TP Mazembe, citing the dry surface as a hindrance to his team's style of play.

"At halftime, it was time to go back to the plan," he explained. "We knew there would be drops of energy on the other side, and that we had a lot of capacity to bring from the bench onto the pitch. And that happened, so we were able to find a moment to score."

Despite creating several chances, Miguel Cardoso believes the pitch conditions prevented his side from securing a victory.

"Unfortunately, because of a very dry pitch and a surface that is not ideal to play on, we could not finish a few situations," he concluded.

"But we had more than enough opportunities to, with a little bit more accuracy, score the goal that would have given us the three points."