Polokwane City are one match away from reaching their first-ever cup final, but the fact that they face Bloemfontein Celtic at home could be their stumbling block.

Rise and Shine will take on Siwelele at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium in the Telkom Knockout semifinal on Sunday (3.30pm), and even though teams are generally strong in their own backyard, this has not been the case for the Limpopo side this season.

Polokwane have won only one match at home in six attempts, and that was on penalties against Ajax Cape Town in the last 16 of the competition. Coach Bernard Molekwa believes, however, that his team is ready to win at home this time.

"I think the team is looking good and training has gone well since Monday. I'm happy with what I've seen from the players," said Molekwa yesterday from the club's training ground in Polokwane.

Polokwane City also needed penalties to beat Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinals, but Molekwa maintained that the aim has always been to win in regulation time and this is something he's hoping for against Celtic.

"A game is a game. We go into a game hoping we can end it in 90 minutes, but we ended up going to penalties."

The good news for Polokwane is that goalkeeper George Chigova has recovered from the knee injury he sustained during the match against Pirates and is available for the match against Celtic.

Meanwhile, Celtic coach Veselin Jelusic said he respects Polokwane and has predicted a tough match.

"It's a new game, a new story. I respect Polokwane and it will be a very tough game, so we are ready to fight until the end of the game.

"We know they have a lot of good players, not only [Rodney] Ramagalela," said Jelusic, whose side has won three of their six matches on the road to go with two draws and one loss.

In fact, one of Celtic's away wins came against Polokwane back in September.