Mamelodi Sundowns will be hosting Stellenbosch on Wednesday in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-final at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium in Pretoria.
It will be an interesting fixture after the Premier Soccer League champions eliminated the Carling Knockout holders controversially from the Nedbank Cup last season.
Masandawana advanced after a hard-fought 1-0 win over Polokwane City while Stellies claimed a 3-1 victory over TS Galaxy to grab their last four ticket.
Head-to-head
Last season, the two teams met three times across all competitions – twice in the Premier Soccer League and once in the Cup competition.
Sundowns won all the games, scoring six goals in the process and conceding just one. In the last five games in all tournaments, the Brazilians have secured three wins, losing once and drawing one in the process.
Recent form
In the last couple of weeks, Stellenbosch have played three matches; they started with a 3-1 MTN8 quarter-final win over the Rockets. They then claimed a huge 8-0 aggregate win over Nsingizini Hotspurs in the first preliminary round of the Caf Confederation Cup.
Sundowns, under a new-look technical team led by coach Manqoba Mngqithi, have so far played one game, the MTN8 fixture against Polokwane.
What have the coaches said?
Mngqithi is not anticipating an easy outing, “They've grown in leaps and bounds as a team,” he said in a pre-match interview.
“One anticipated that they would do very well and one was proven right in that but at this stage, I think as a team they've really grown in leaps and bounds probably even in creating a nice pipeline for their team in terms of recruitment because when you see a player like Mojela [Lehlohonolo] in their team then you already know they anticipated that if they were to lose some of their key players, it will be important.
“I think Stellenbosch has really done well in that regard because first as a team you need to understand yourselves and I think at Stellenbosch probably because they are also not changing coaches a lot, so they've got a very clear playing philosophy which is working for them,” he concluded.
Starting XI predicted
Mamelodi Sundowns: Pieterse, Lebusa, Coetzee, Mudau, Mashego, Modiba, Allende, Mokoena, Ribeiro, Matthews, Shalulile
Stellenbosch: Stephens, Basadien, Moloisane, Mcaba, De Jong, Nduli, Barns, Adams, Titus, Mojela. Jurgens
When and where to watch
The game will be played on Wednesday, August 28 at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium from 1900 SAT.
It will be televised live on SuperSport PSL (Channel 202) and SABC Sport
