A Tshwane derby between the University of Pretoria and Mamelodi Sundowns will kick-off the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals, which will be played across the weekend of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
AmaTuks and the Brazilians will meet at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on the evening of Friday, with the Motsepe Foundation Championship side looking to continue the form which sees them placed just one point from the top of their league, as well as having secured back-to-back wins over top flight opposition in Cape Town Spurs and Moroka Swallows to earn their place in the final eight of the national cup tournament.
However, a Sundowns team which has not suffered an outright domestic loss (their exits in the MTN8 and Carling Knockout were both via penalties) in almost exactly a year (a 2-1 loss to Stellenbosch FC in a Nedbank Cup quarterfinal on 15 April 2023) will be the proverbial mountain to climb for Tuks.
“We’ve got a draw against a very difficult team and of course one of the best teams on the continent,” admitted University of Pretoria coach Tlisane Motaung. “The most important thing is to allow our players an opportunity to be at this stage with the best team to really learn and compete.
“More than anything, they must not put pressure on themselves because our plan is very simple and that is to do things that we feel have been working for us this season.
“We know that on the day, we will have to be very superb and it’s what we are going to work on.”
Saturday sees Stellenbosch FC looking to extend their unbeaten run in official competitions to 21 matches when they welcome SuperSport United (who have managed just one win in their last eight matches across all competitions) to the Danie Craven Stadium, before AmaZulu and Orlando Pirates
Read on supersport.com