Tshwane club Mamelodi Sundowns are now favourites to progress to the CAF Champions League final after beating Esperance in Tunisia in the first leg of the semifinals.

The Brazilians beat the hosts 1-0 on Sunday, and after securing the result away, Sundowns appear well on course to reach the final.

However, Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has cautioned that it is far from over and expects his former employers, Esperance, to put up a fight in Pretoria. The two sides will meet again on Saturday, 18 April.

“Let’s understand how we want to play the game, look at this game and then what we have to do,” said Cardoso in Tunis.

“What we know is that we are just on half-time and that’s how important it is to go to the second match… The teams will always fight to impose themselves to the other ones but the games on this level they have different moments and today as expected there were different moments on the game.

“That’s exactly how it will be in Pretoria. The team that deals better with the different moments is for sure the team that in the end will take the game and will proceed to the next step.”

Cardoso concluded, “Of course there is a strategic plan and the strategic plan has to be built with what we already saw from the team Esperance but also with what we saw in our match. The team that is more faithful and more able to impose themselves in the different moments is perhaps the team that gains something more, an advantage. But sometimes the game is very detailed and the game can fall on one side or the other.”

The winner of this tie will meet either FAR Rabat or RS Berkane, both from Morocco.