Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso believes his side allowed Golden Arrows back into the game after a strong opening spell in their MTN8 semi-final clash.

The Brazilians suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to Arrows in the first-leg through a goal from Sede Junior Dion at the Lucas moripe Stadium on Sunday.

Sundowns will have it all to play for when they travel to the King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium on Sunday, August 30.

Cardoso admitted that Sundowns lost their rhythm following a lengthy stoppage for an Arrows goalkeeper substitution and were punished for another lapse in defensive organisation.

“I think we had a good start, first 20 minutes until the substitution of the goalkeeper from Golden Arrows, it took a little bit of the rhythm of the game. We were ok seven minutes to make a substitution and then we fell asleep, we fell asleep until halftime,” Cardoso told SuperSport after the game.

“Completely asleep and out of a mistake similar to the one we did in the match against Chiefs where we see we lose the ball and out of position for the rest-defence and we still make a mistake by dropping a player in the front and we suffered a goal.

“And it’s time to learn how to deal with these situations obviously, otherwise you cannot continue to dominate the game and suffer from a simple action. Two times they were able to counter-attack.

“And two times they were able to enter the box to take danger and the story of the game is creating opportunities one after the other and the goalkeeper very well that did very well.

“They weren’t able to oppose to our target; we also didn’t manage to get a lot of shots on target as we could because they defended very well and halftime of the match let’s second half when we go to Arrows what would have.”