Fifth-placed Cape Town City will be looking to continue their resurgence and return to winning ways as they prepare to tackle AmaZulu at the Cape Town Stadium on Sunday evening.
The Citizens’ coach Eric Tinkler is hoping to earn a top-four finish for his club this season. They enter the game against Usuthu six points behind fourth-place Kaizer Chiefs.
City enter the game on the back of a five-game unbeaten run in the league which has included three wins. In their last game, they also held newly crowned league champions Mamelodi Sundowns to a creditable 0-0 draw.
“Every single match will be a fight. We need to believe that we can try to achieve that top-four position which is what we set as a target at the beginning of the season. We will have that opportunity because we still have to play against Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs. Those games become six pointers, so it is important that we do well at home against AmaZulu. That game we must ensure we collect maximum points and move on to the next one,” said Tinkler.
Usuthu have undergone structural changes as they opted to demote Romain Folz with club stalwart Ayanda Dlamini being made interim coach. Dlamini is no stranger to this role. He previously served as coach of the club during the latter stages of the 2019/20 season, helping the club avoid relegation and during the early stages of the 2020/21 season. He was subsequently replaced by Benni McCarthy in late 2020 and redeployed to assist the club’s youth structures.
The Durban based club have lost their last two games with the most recent loss coming in a 1-0 defeat to perennial strugglers Swallows FC. They are currently 12th in the league and will be hoping to earn a strong top eight finish which will earn them qualification to next season’s MTN 8 tournament.
AmaZulu are four points clear of the relegation zone but also just two points adrift of the top eight. Should they defeat City, there is a solid chance that they will find themselves back into the top eight.
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IOL Sport