The Brazilians were making their first appearance since before the Africa Cup of Nations break, and goals from Arthur Sales (21') and new signing Brayan Leon (64') sealed the win, to push the club above Orlando Pirates into first place on the standings with 29 points from 14 games.

The Buccaneers dropped to second with 28 points from 12 games, ahead of playing Sekhukhune United on Saturday.

Leon had come off the bench at half time for Lebo Mothiba and speaking after the game, Cardoso praised his side's performance, while admitting they are still short of a number of first team players, who are making their way back into the team following the completion of AFCON.

He told SuperSport: "We knew that Lebo [Mothiba] could not hold all the match but also we knew that we wanted to give half match to Brayan, so it was a predicted substitution.

"And just happy that we have more solutions, obviously in the moment important players are not even today on the bench.

"But what these guys need to understand is Sundowns that will play a lot of matches and the boys just need to be ready for all the opportunities we give.

"And that's what I hope it will happen for sure."

Cardoso also praised Man of the Match Thato Sibiya, for his excellent debut performances for the Brazilians and disputed rumours he will leave his post this season after coming under criticism for his team's elimination from both MTN8 and Carling Knockout cups.

"Yes, I'm happy obviously, and it’s just a matter of trust," Cardoso added.

"There's no young players appearing if in some moments we don't put them to play. And sometimes they don't appear because there are different aspects that are important in bringing up a young player."

"Regarding my future, don't worry about it," he said. "My future doesn't depend on football; just my professional life depends on football. It's completely different. My future depends on many other things, depends much more on music than on football, depends much more on nature than on football, depends much more on cycling than on football.

"We are united, and we know what to do. We are working hard to please our fans as much as possible, and we just need our fans not to let themselves be poisoned by the outside."

Sundowns through to Nedbank Cup final four with goal in extra time