The Brazilians were held to a goalless draw in the first leg in Angola on Sunday

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso expects a much-improved performance when they host Wiliete SC in the Caf Champions League second round return leg at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Friday.

The Brazilians were held to a 0-0 draw in the first leg in Angola on Sunday and missed an opportunity to take control of the fixture ahead of the return leg.

Masandawana will have a lot of work to do in the return leg as they will need to win to advance to the group stages. A score draw will see them being eliminated from the competition they are planning to defend.

Cardoso admitted that they were not happy with the result and said they would do their best to make sure they do better on Friday.

“I think we could’ve done better; we could’ve had more control and could’ve had more aggression in the box,” Cardoso told the club media department.

“We will prepare this match in the best possible way. We need to be stronger than we were. Be more aggressive and more offensive. We need to be on the level of the team that wants to state itself in the Champions League.

“Despite our intentions, we’re not happy with this result. Of course, we could’ve scored.”

Cardoso also blamed fatigue for the results, as he feels they should have scored from a few of the chances they created.

“It was a difficult context to manage. We have to be intentional, to prepare well and give some a rest because it was also clear that there was a little bit of fatigue in some of the players,” he said.

“There were moments in the first half where it seemed the game could become, I wouldn’t say easy, but we would create our moments. But in the second half, it was not easy to settle down, so we needed to change a few things, we needed to be more aggressive, more offensive and put numbers on the offensive attitude rather than what I saw.”

The match also saw midfielder Tebogo Mokoena stretchered off, and Cardoso says he hopes he will recover in time before the match on Friday.

“Tebogo is a little bit out of touch with that ligament that he got injured while in the national team; at the moment we don’t know the extent of the injury, but he could not continue in the match.

“Let’s hope it’s not a big thing and [he can] recover for the next match,” the coach said.