Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has reminded everyone that he got to the CAF Champions League final last season despite finishing second in the group stages with Esperance.
The Brazilians settled for second place in Group B after drawing 1-1 with AS FAR on Sunday evening at Loftus Versfeld.
Cardoso feels it's not a train smash that his side finished second, meaning they will be away in the second leg of their quarter-final.
Read: Sundowns Complete CAF CL Quarter-Final Line-Up
"We were okay, it was just about managing the game and as you saw we changed and sometimes you expect things to happen and they don't. The intention was to get more control of the game, because also AS FAR was not pressing too much," Cardoso told SABC Sport.
"But we made a mistake, we lost one player and we suffered a goal, Champions League is like that, small mistake, it's a goal. We paid for that. But anyway it's important that we got past the group, it was the objective, mission accomplished.
"All the team's are very strong, eventually of course we could not take the advantage of playing second leg home, we will play away, so we have to make our job in the right way," the Portuguese coach went on.
"Last year I went to the final always playing away second match. What is important is how we will grow from April when we play CAF Champions League. It's time to close the door on the Champions League, focus on the championship, which lies ahead.
"We had a lot of players out of the team today, I cannot even say the names because it's a lot of players who could not play. So the team will grow and we will be more strong for that moment," the former Esperance coach added.
