KAIZER Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune does not want anyone to tell him Mamelodi Sundowns were brilliant when the two sides met two weeks ago.
Khune prefers to believe Chiefs were so bad on the day that they actually made an ordinary Sundowns side look good in that MTN8 quarterfinal encounter.
Chiefs lost the encounter 4-1 but Khune said the result should not give anyone the idea that Sundowns have suddenly become a well-oiled machine to be feared.
"We made them look good because our level of concentration was too low from our side and that resulted in us conceding three goals from dead-ball situations," he said.
"They only scored one goal from open play and we managed to defend very well during the 90 minutes. We only slipped up a little bit in the set-pieces. We have been working on defending set-pieces and also scoring from them since then."
The two sides meet in a league match at Soccer City on Wednesday night in a game Khune said could not have come at a better time.
Cynics wrote Chiefs off as serious title contenders after the heavy defeat to Sundowns, and Khune said they appreciated the early opportunity for redemption.
"Football is a funny game and people normally talk about revenge in situations like these. But I do not see this game as revenge. I prefer to see it as an opportunity presenting itself to us to prove our worth….
"Playing them so soon after that defeat is great because all the teams in the premiership are still rusty. It is early in the season and we want to play them now while they are still a bit shaky like everybody else."
The 4-1 humiliation of Chiefs remains fresh at Sundowns, though, and midfielder Hlompho Kekana said on Tuesday that they would go to Soccer City with a confident bounce in their step on Wednesday night.
"We have already set a standard for ourselves by beating Chiefs 4-1, now we have to maintain it," he told the club’s website on Tuesday.
"We will not put ourselves under any pressure by thinking about the score line, but rather to bag the three points — that’s the most important part. The team spirit amongst the guys is at an all-time high.
"The new guys in the team have raised the level of competition, and that can only lead to a stronger squad. The fact that most of the new players are doing so well and are contributing to the team’s good start motivates the rest of the guys to work even harder."
Khune said he was happy his team-mates had put the defeat to Sundowns behind them when they beat AmaZulu 6-0 in their first league match of the season last week.
Bernard Parker, in particular, caught the eye after scoring four goals in that demolition of AmaZulu. Parker said he was relieved his hunger for goals had returned.
WEDNESDAY’S PREMIERSHIP MATCHES
- Golden Arrows vs University of Pretoria at Cedric Sugar Ray Stadium (6pm),
- SuperSport United vs Orlando Pirates at Peter Mokaba Stadium (7.30pm),
- Bloemfontein Celtic vs Platinum Stars at Free State Stadium (7.30pm),
- Chiefs vs Sundowns at Soccer City (7.30pm),
- Moroka Swallows vs Ajax Cape Town at Dobsonville Stadium (7.30pm),
- Bidvest Wits vs Black Leopards at Bidvest Stadium (7.30pm).
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