As the post-mortem into Mamelodi Sundowns’ CAF Champions League exit continues, head coach Miguel Cardoso has refused to blame their shock elimination on the absence of key players.

Influential midfielder Teboho Mokoena missed the second leg of their second preliminary round tie against Angola’s Wiliete SC after picking up an injury in the first leg.

Cardoso was also without the injured quartet of Grant Kekana, Keanu Cupido, Khuliso Mudau and Kegan Johannes, who played key roles in Sundowns’ triumphant Champions League campaign last season.

Arthur Sales has also been missing in action this season due to injury. Asked whether he missed Mokoena in the second leg against Wiliete, in which Sundowns failed to progress to the group stage following a 1-1 aggregate draw, Cardoso insisted that the Brazilians had enough quality on the pitch to get the job done.

“That’s not an excuse because the team that played against Wiliete should have won the match. There’s no question that we missed players, and we could be stronger with those players, of course,” he said.

“It would give us more variability and allow us to create other options, but that’s not an excuse because we should have won the match with the players we had on the pitch and the ones that came on, because we created enough to win.”

Sundowns have only ourselves to blame

Cardoso believes Sundowns have nobody but themselves to blame for their premature exit, which means they will be unable to defend their continental crown.

However, the Portuguese acknowledged that the occasion may have proved too high for some of the less experienced players who were thrown into the deep end as Sundowns stumbled at the first hurdle.

“Basically, we didn’t lose the match, but we drew both matches. We have also progressed in this competition because of the away-goals rule, so we have only ourselves to blame for the goals we didn’t score,” he added.

“You have to take your chances so that you don’t expose yourself to conceding a random goal. As time went by, you could feel the pressure on some of the players who are not used to this level. But, with all due respect, there’s no excuse, and we should have done better.”