Miguel Cardoso vents at his players after amateur side stretches Mamelodi Sundowns in Nedbank Cup - 'Obviously if you don't pay attention you can suffer and get nervous'

Mamelodi Sundowns beat Sibanye Golden Stars 5-2 to advance to the Last-16 of the Nedbank Cup.

It was a match the Brazilians ended with 10 men following a red card to Bathusi Aubaaas and they struggled to cleanly beat their opponents who ply their trade in the third division.

That irked coach Miguel Cardoso who felt his players were not up to their best.

"The victory was not in the end, the victory was from the very beginning, it's normal that sometimes it's very difficult to focus the players in the best way, we changed a lot of players, we changed players during the game," Cardoso said as per KickOff.

"Mission accomplished, five goals, what [more] to say? Nothing more, it's very easy. The game became simple and then we get a red card, it's obvious for the team to shake a little bit but five goals, nothing to say. 

"Ups and downs, some players performed better than others. It's important to understand. We all train together, so it's really been an investment in changing players. Today we had an objective to win the game, give game time to almost everybody, try also to manage cards," added the Portuguese tactician.

"The performance was normal for a Cup match. When you score in the first minute and then you score in the tenth, it's very difficult to focus when the game becomes so easy. 

"Obviously if you don't pay attention you can suffer and get nervous and things don't come out as you want. It will be better to win 10-0 but in the end we have a score of five, so we respect the opponent. 

"But there was a moment that maybe we didn't respect as we should but maybe we didn't respect ourselves a little bit than we should," he continued.

"That's what made me a little bit unhappy regarding the situation of Aubaas, because indeed we should not have any disciplinary questions, so that we can proceed for the next games with everybody. 

"I didn't see what happened so I cannot speak about that, what I know is that he got the red card and he was playing normally, it's not a question of how he was playing, we need to manage the emotions, I don't really know what happened. So I'll take a look and we'll see." 

Struggling to beat Sibanye could be a huge concern for Sundowns who are known to be merciless even in Africa.

This is a club that once beat Powerlones 24-0 in this competition in 2012 but Cardoso has struggled against an amateur side.

They have also been ruthless in the Caf Champions League group phase but this time around they struggled to reach the knockouts.

The Brazilians will now look to maintain their grip on top of the PSL table.

They host Golden Arrows on February 2 seeking to ward off pressure from Orlando Pirates who are seriously chasing them for the league title.