Chiefs were held to a goalless draw for nearly two hours before they finally broke through their ABC Motsepe League opposition’s defence in their Nedbank Cup Round of 16 clash on the weekend.
A quick-fire treble from Daniel Cardoso, Philani Zulu and Khama Billiat within 14 minutes inside extra-time saw Amakhosi march on with a 3-0 victory at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Despite their struggles to wrap the game up earlier, Middendorp defended that his charges gave a good account of themselves as they “managed” themselves as well as The Magic.
“It boiled down to managing the game and our players. We made it difficult for ourselves once again. However, we came here to win the match and that’s what happened,” said the German.
“Credit goes to The Magic, they defended deep, especially in the first half, and that made it difficult for us to break them down. We achieved our objective. We have to continue working hard and perfect our play.
“There’s not much lacking in our game. We are professionals. We would like to have scored earlier, but we contained their tactics and eventually succeeded with the 3-0 win as a result.
“We qualified for the next round of the Nedbank Cup. We will review this game and start preparing for our upcoming league fixture against Polokwane City.”
Chiefs are set to learn their opponents for the quarterfinals of the competition on Thursday, before turning their attention back to the Absa Premiership race at the Peter Mokaba Stadium this Saturday (15h30).