Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has recalled a moment he wanted to leave a previous club before a crucial game.
Cardoso was addressing the media following the 1-0 over his former club Esperance on Tuesday.
Sundowns and Esperance met in the quarterfinal of the CAF Champions League at the Loftus Stadium. The reverse fixture takes place at the Stade Olympique Hammadi Agrebi, located 9 km southeast of the capital Tunis.
Having guided The Taraji to the 2023/24 league title in Tunisia, the Portuguese mentor knows what exactly to expect when he leads Sundowns next week. He has since reflected on a moment where he wanted to leave the club during an explosive derby in the North African country.
“Champions League matches have a different ambience from the ones on the championship,” Cardoso said. “[This is] because the rules that CAF induces in the matches are obviously very important to be respected. And it means that the ambience in the Stadium becomes more positive and less aggressive than the ones you have in the national championship in Tunisia.”
CARDOSO OPENS UP ON TUNISIA DERBY ATMOSPHERE
The first time Cardoso, who joined Esperance in January 2024, played Club Africain was on March 16, 2024. He has since recounted how frightening the environment was.
“I played Club Africain and I wanted to go home,” he said. “I wanted to go home and leave my club at that moment because it was fight, fight but pure fight. “We were in the warm-up, and everybody entered the pitch.
The game was stopped four times. There was like [tear] gas. There were people falling on the spaces around the pitch. There was, and then everybody was put out.
“We played until the end without people in the stands …” He believes “that spirit is because of rivalry”. Cardoso said he doesn’t expect that kind of atmosphere in next week’s encounter. He said people who follow Champions League games “behave good, they like football and enjoy football”.
“They just want to cheer and push their team forward. So, I don’t expect, rather than that ambience. I confess to you that most of my beautiful memories from matches, come from there because you will see lights all around the stadium, people with the with the phones and singing all the time.”
He added that the Champions League atmosphere in Tunis reminded him of a game they played at Anfield Stadium against Liverpool in March 2011. At the time, Cardoso was assistant coach of Liga Portugal side SC Braga. “It reminds me of Anfield when I played against Liverpool in a Europa final…”
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