Sundowns 'obliged to win', says Miguel Cardoso ahead of Carling Knockout clash with Marumo Gallants

The Brazilians have won the last seven South African top-flight titles but have struggled to replicate that form in domestic cup competitions.

Last term they made it to the final of the Carling Knockout but lost to Betway Premiership newbies Magesi, and this season saw their MTN8 campaign come to an end in the semi-finals to eventual winners Orlando Pirates.

Gallants though won't be pushovers, despite their slow start to the current league season, that includes a 1-1 draw with Sundowns in September.

Speaking ahead of the weekend's game, Cardoso said in the Citizen: "We need to understand that their game is hard to control in terms of pressing the spaces upfront. We need to have good control of the match in terms of ball possession.

"We need to be much more aggressive and more controlling. We don't expect Marumo to be a different team because that's how they have been playing throughout the season but we should expect a different Sundowns and the players will know what kind of game we had."

"We have an obligation to fight and win all the competitions. We all know that we played Marumo recently away and we all know that they haven't lost against us, Orlando Pirates or Kaizer Chiefs, so we expect a tough match," the head coach added.

"We are preparing the best way and I had a chance this week to prepare a match with three training sessions, which is unique for us.

"We should understand what kind of game we have to play and the level of intensity we need to put in from the beginning so that we don't give too many chances for Marumo to threaten us."