Were Kaizer Chiefs lucky? Miguel Cardoso believes 'it was clear that my team was tired' & Nasreddine Nabi insists Amakhosi will 'finish higher' in PSL standings despite defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns

Mamelodi Sundowns extended their lead in the PSL standings after narrowly defeating Kaizer Chiefs 1-0 at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

PSL leading goal scorer Lucas Ribeiro Costa's goal just four minutes before the half-time break was sufficient to secure the Brazilians the full points at home.

Following the match, Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso and his Chiefs counterpart Nasreddine Nabi reacted to the result of the clash.

"It was a very tough match, indeed due to different things, firstly, it was clear that Chiefs made a good game, and Sundowns made a good game. It was clear that my team was tired, we felt it from the beginning [of the game]. There was no freshness in our players to play as fluently as we usually play, even the defense today was more difficult to press," Cardoso told SABC Sport after the match. 

"At halftime, I said to my players that they should have courage and trust each other to play this match. We changed the structures in the first and second half and brought new players to refresh the team.

"Congratulations to everybody because I think it was not a very well-played match today but a very competitive and interesting tactical approach. Congratulations to players from both teams but my players deserve praise for their organization, their commitment, and the quality they put to finish the game," he added. 

"We have a very important match against Golden Arrows, we need to rest players, today we had several players that could not give that contribution. We have players that are hanging by the wires as you say, but we are taking care of them, giving them rest so that they can be brought up in the following match. We will keep our energy, our positive thoughts, our commitment, and our hard work, there is still a long way to go."

"It's a game that leaves us with some regrets because we feel that we have done enough to create some problems for the opponents. We created opportunities, we had even more control of the game in the second half but it is football and at the end of the day we had to score," Nabi told the public broadcaster. 

"We believe we deserved even a tie given the performance that we had but this is football and we know that we have lost important points today. We have to go back to push our players and encourage our players for the next game.

"Whenever we lose it does not matter the performance, you will never be happy when you lose the game but what we can take from the game today is the performance of the team and the improvement of the players," added the Tunisian mentor. 

"We know that our position in the league table does not reflect the performance that we have been having but the standing [position in the table] is a temporary thing. We know that we will finish the season higher up that is why we work very hard. The team is progressing, we know the process of building but we need the result to take us high up in the standings."

Up next for Sundowns is an away fixture to KwaZulu-Natal outfit Golden Arrows at the Mpumalanga Stadium on Wednesday, March 5.

On Tuesday, March 4, a wounded Chiefs side will face off against Magesi FC, who earned a confidence-boosting victory over SuperSport United on Saturday.