Cape Town City will kick off their Telkom Knockout campaign on Saturday afternoon when they host an in-form Kaizer Chiefs at the Cape Town Stadium. It will be City’s second home game against Chiefs in just under two months, having previously lost 2-1 to Amakhosi at Newlands in the league earlier in 2019.
City Coach Benni McCarthy says it will be a tough challenge against Chiefs, but he feels they can take heart from that first game, where they started well and led the game, until Chiefs turned things around in the second half.
McCarthy has no complaints about facing Chiefs in the Last 16 and says since taking over at City three seasons ago, he has hardly ever had an easy draw in the cups.
The former Bafana Bafana striker says his players are excited to show what they can do on Saturday, and there has been good energy at training in the build-up.
Unfortunately, there are injury concerns for Thami Mkhize, Roland Putsche and Keanu Cupido, but McCarthy says he will give them until the end of the week to prove their fitness.
The boys are working harder than ever as we welcome Chiefs on Saturday ??#iamCityFC pic.twitter.com/xLYIed3zpR
— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC) October 16, 2019
“Every time I see this boy play he reminds me of a young Pep Guardiola. I genuinely don’t know where to play him! Whether he’s a right back, centre back, a 6 or 8⁉️ He’s so versatile, the way I want to play, Bara just executes it perfectly” – Benni McCarthy #iamCityFC pic.twitter.com/4stLmqbL7R
— Cape Town City FC (@CapeTownCityFC) July 14, 2019
– Report by Rob Delport