Peter Shalulile opened the scoring for the Brazilians at Loftus Versfeld after 20 minutes, but Pirates youngster Cemran Dansin scored his first top-flight goal on 35 minutes for a share of the spoils.

Cardoso has been criticised for being defensive this season, but says he was pleased with his side’s performance against Bucs, considering he had a number of injury absentees.

Reflecting on the encounter, the Brazilian boss explained that it’s not easy to overcome a team like Pirates when you have eight first-teamers out of action.

He said on iDiski Times: “You are looking the other way, not just one side, and I agree with that, we wanted to win, if you were in my locker room at half time you will understand how much I pushed these guys to win this much, there’s no other mentality in myself.

“Despite people say, you’re a defensive coach, that’s bullsh*t – so what I mean, it’s not true, we wanted to win the match and at half-time I was very hard on my players in terms of mindset, in terms of attitude, because for this match we had an expression all week.”

Cardoso added: “When you have Themba Zwane, Mothobi Mvala, Thapelo Morena, Miguel Reisinho, Teboho Mokoena, Divine Lunga, Kutlwano, Malibongwe, and you still have the kids studying their exams, obviously the team is not on the same level.

“But I don’t complain because what I saw from my players was character, so I go along with what you said, I think we saw character, we could have done better? Yes, do we believe we will do better? Yes, but probably two of the best teams were on the pitch [of South Africa.”

Sundowns are next in action at home against TS Galaxy at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday.