AmaZulu midfielder Ben Motshwari has revealed how they plan to stop in-form Orlando Pirates striker Tshegofatso Mabasa when they meet in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal at Moses Mabhida Stadium tomorrow (6pm).

Since his return from Moroka Swallows on loan in January, Mabasa has been instrumental for the Buccaneers and scored a hattrick during their 7-1 thumping of Golden Arrows in the DStv Premiership match last week.

That saw Mabasa currently the second-highest scorer in the league with 10 goals and Motshwari went into detail about how they plan to keep him quiet.

“We don’t try to dwell too much on individuals because we tend to lose ourselves as a team collectively. I think we have decent centre backs that can deal with him,” Motshwari told the media during the press conference yesterday in Durban ahead of the match.

“We are not going to allow or give him that space that he wants, but for us, he is the threat. But we don’t want to dwell too much on that and we just want to focus on ourselves because we have been struggling to score goals.

“So, this is what we have been working on in terms of training and going forward for ourselves.”

The Buccaneers will come into this match on the back of a 7-1 thumping of Arrows in their last game to send a warning to Usuthu, but Motshwari, 33, insists they are not intimidated by that. 

“It also goes with the approach, we are not Golden Arrows. I think they had a different game plan approaching that match,” he said. “I don’t know what they were doing as they were hammered [by] seven, but for us, it’s going to be a different ball game altogether. Hopefully, they finished those goals against Arrows.

“Coming here is not going to be easy. We are going to give them a tough time. We do have quality players who can go pound for pound with them.

“Yes, they are a big team and we respect them. But this is football, anything can happen.”

Meanwhile, Pirates coach Jose Riveiro insists he is not worried that he will have to do without some of his key defenders, Tapelo Xoki and Nkosinathi Sibisi, who are both suspended, while Olisa Ndah is injured.

”We have seven centre backs in the squad, so we are still alright. We are going to play with two and we are more than okay,” Riveiro said.

“It is not going to be a problem. We have solutions even if we miss or lose one, who is available to play. It is not going to be a problem for us.”

Fixtures

Today: University of PTA v Sundowns, Lucas Moripe (7pm).

Tomorrow: Stellenbosch v SuperSport, Danie Craven (3pm); AmaZulu v Pirates, Moses Mabhida (6pm).

Sunday: Galaxy v Chippa, Mbombela (3pm).