Miguel Cardoso proud of resilient Sundowns after narrow Dortmund defeat

The Betway Premiership side opened the scoring at the TQL Stadium, in Cincinnati with a superb breakaway goal from the lively Lucas Ribeiro on just 11 minutes.

An error by Downs stopper Ronwen Williams then gifted Felix Nmecha an equaliser five minutes later, and a loss of possession by Teboho Mokoena saw Serhou Guirassy put Dortmund ahead just past the half hour mark, with a towering back-post header.

Jobe Bellingham scored on his first start for his new team on the stroke of half-time with a composed finish, while Khuliso Mudau was unfortunate to deflect a 50th minute cross past Williams and into his own net to seemingly put the result beyond doubt.

But the Brazilians were back in the tie when Iqraam Rayners expertly headed home his own rebounded effort from a teasing Mokoena delivery, as a late Lebo Mothiba goal added some more respectability to the scoreline.

Had they not gifted the Bundesliga two goals, the result may have been very different, and Cardoso explained that despite the difference in stature between the two teams, it was Sundowns who ended the match the stronger of the two teams.

He said on IOL: "I feel that. I feel a double emotion. The first one is that obviously we are not happy, and not being happy is a wonderful sensation at this moment. It means that we competed at the highest level and we do not feel happy after playing Borussia Dortmund.

"That's some strange place to be, with big respect for Borussia. What I'm saying is that it was clear that today we pushed the level of the game to the maximum, to the highest level, and we had good play, an open game against such a strong opponent."

Sundowns, in third place in Group F with three points, are next in action against leaders Fluminense (four) at the Hard Rock Stadium in Florida on Wednesday.

Cardoso added: "It's important that people understand who Borussia Dortmund are, so that they can really highlight the quality of the game that was played today by Sundowns.

"We're not happy, of course. But despite the loss, we are proud. I'm very proud of them, of the way the players played. I'm very proud of the resilience they had throughout the game, so that we could finish the game playing for a result, because as you saw, in the closing stages in the heads of the players from Dortmund, they just wanted to finish the game.

"We wanted to continue to fight for the victory."