'We were better than Orlando Pirates' - Miguel Cardoso | OneFootball

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Cardoso adamant Downs dominated Bucs

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Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso feels his team played better than Orlando Pirates in their top-of-the-table clash in the Betway Premiership at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.

The PSL heavyweights settled for a share of the spoils in a one-all draw, with young midfielder Cemran Dansin scoring a stunning volley to cancel out Peter Shalulile's opener.

In the wake of the result, Cardoso feels his charges outplayed Abdeslam Ouaddou's men, stating the Bucs mentor has to delve deep into his tactics in order to reign supremer over Masandawana.

“I think me and the coach of Orlando Pirates must have the same thoughts. I think maybe he needs to have even deeper thoughts because I think Mamelodi Sundowns played better than Orlando Pirates today [Saturday],” said Cardoso.

"Obviously that we learn from from these kinds of matches because these matches expose the difficulties the teams have and I don't want to detail because I don't want want to speak about my players in public - I will keep it to myself but it's obvious that from our part we need more power upfront. We didn't have the capacity today.

Cardoso went on to lament the absence of his forward players in the showdown, attributing the result to lack of firepower in his arsenal. The 53-year-old also took aim at Pirates' long-ball approach in the game.

“When you have so many players of your attack out of your team and look [at] your bench and you see - we knew that it was important to take the players as much as possible to the game to try to score first because we believed that scoring first and usually it happens especially in PSL games, usually we win 95% of the matches but unfortunately it didn't happen today,” he added.

"It was a fantastic goal from Orlando Pirates in the mistake that we did and that gave them the equalizer because after that I don't feel there were a lot of opportunities from their side but of course we have to learn, we have to learn more how to control the game in the half pitch.

"But it's not easy to play against a team, if you remember the last 20 or 30 minutes of the game, every time the defenders of Orlando Pirates had the ball, they just put long balls in your back, even when you want to press you are receiving balls. It's normal that the team stretches a lot so the connections to play.