City ooze confidence after first win of the season

Tinkler hopes team will redeem themselves and claim MTN8

Sihle Ndebele Journalist
Cape Town City captain Thamsanqa Mkhize takes the ball away from Khama Billiat of Kaizer Chiefs during the DStv Premiership match between Cape Town City FC and Kaizer Chiefs.
Cape Town City captain Thamsanqa Mkhize takes the ball away from Khama Billiat of Kaizer Chiefs during the DStv Premiership match between Cape Town City FC and Kaizer Chiefs.
Image: EJ Langner/Gallo Images

Cape Town City's victory over Kaizer Chiefs, their maiden of the season, has given them much needed confidence ahead of tomorrow's MTN8 quarterfinal clash against AmaZulu at Athlone Stadium (3pm).

"We're very happy that we've finally won our first game of the season. The win over Chiefs has helped us in terms of bringing back that confidence we need as a team. When you don't win, you also start to lose confidence, so our confidence is back and it's just good that we've regained it ahead of a cup game,'' said City skipper Thamsanqa Mkhize.

City coach Eric Tinkler also echoed his skipper Mkhize's assertion. City are the losing finalist of the Wafa-Wafa cup's last edition as they lost to Mamelodi Sundowns on penalties in the decider at Moses Mabhida Stadium last October. The agony of being defeated in the final still lingers in Tinkler's mind, hoping they can win this trophy this time around.

"Hopefully now after the win against Chiefs, the motivation and the confidence... the morale will be a lot higher. Obviously we'd love to see ourselves moving on in the competition. We went all the way to the final last season and we were one kick away from winning it. So, we'd like to see ourselves taking it one step further this season,'' said Tinkler.

Defender Taariq Fielies missed a spot-kick that would have seen the Citizens win the penalty shoot-out after a tightly contested tie had ended 1-all. Thapelo Morena scored for Sundowns early in the first period before Fagrie Lakay struck in the 75th minute to force extra-time.

Unlike City, AmaZulu head into this clash licking their wounds after suffering a 1-0 KZN derby defeat to Golden Arrows on Wednesday. Mkhize expects Usuthu to give them a run for their money, especially because the two sides have already met in the league, where the Durban club came from behind to claim a 2-1 win a fortnight ago.

"I am expecting a tough game because we've played them already in the league in Durban, whereby our first half was very good. We managed to score first before they came back to score two goals and won,'' noted Mkhize.

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