Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Steve Komphela has acknowledged that Kaizer Chiefs had good league games against SuperSport United and Magesi recently, so their game will be tough but they will try by all means to win it. 

The Brazilians will visit the Chiefs on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinal of the Carling Knockout at FNB Stadium. 

Both Sundowns and Chiefs didn’t reach the quarterfinal of this competition last season as they lost in the Last 16 against TS Galaxy and AmaZulu respectively. 

The Tshwane-based side defeated Golden Arrows 5-0 in the Last 16 of the Carling Knockout last month, while Amakhosi won 4-0 against the neighbors of Sundowns, SuperSport in Polokwane. 

The tickets for this game have been officially sold out, meaning it will be a fully packed stadium. 

Komphela said that this game will be a tough one because Amakhosi had been outstanding recently and they gave them a tough game last month in the league game. 

“It’s not gonna be an easy match, I’m sure you saw them [Chiefs] in Polokwane against SuperSport, you saw them on Wednesday against Magesi,” the former Chiefs coach. 

“You still remember when we played them in FNB, (it was not easy). It’s going be packed, that stadium will just be gold and black, yellow and whatever. So, you have to perform and players get afraid there by such an environment. 

 “But big players love such an environment and players who get intimidated, the environment swallows them. So, we just need to work – not only from technical, tactical, preparations and all that. It’s going be more psychological as well and you have to perform under the thousands of people.” 

 The last time these two sides faced each other in a Cup game it was last season in the Semi-final of the MTN8 Cup. In the first leg, they played a 1-1 draw at FNB Stadium then Sundowns won the second leg 2-1 at home where Peter Shalulile scored a brace. 

The last time Sundowns lost to Chiefs was in April 2021 when they went down 2-1 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in the league game. Gaston Sirino, who is now with Amakhosi, scored the only goal for Sundowns in that game while Mosa Lebusa scored an own goal to add to that of Dumisani Zuma.