The Citizens have the slight advantage in the semi-final tie after Taariq Fielies' 75th minute strike secured a 1-0 win on Saturday afternoon.
“I’m very happy that we kept a clean-sheet. It’s not an easy game. Sundowns is the best team in our land. They’ve got the best players and make life difficult for you,” McCarthy told SuperSport TV.
“When you have a game of this magnitude and you keep clean-sheet you have to praise your players. The effort the players gave, they gave everything. It was only a matter of time until that goal was going to come because we piled on the pressure.
“At one stage if anyone of us was to put the ball on target it was bound to go in because it was coming. I’m very happy for the boys because they preserved and never gave up.”
The Citizens tactician went on to say that he was not surprised they scored from a set-piece which is one of their strengths and is looking forward to the second leg.
“The set-piece is what we’re good at. We’re dangerous. We practiced it so it’s good to see that one of them came off. I’m happy for the boys but it’s only 45 minutes. So now we are going to go there and try to defend the 1-0 win. Not that we will defend but we’ll try play the same football we played today to try and put them under pressure. Hopefully we will have to see ourselves in the final,” he concluded.