Big Match Feature: MTN8 Final

football29 October 2021 07:55

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This will be the third meeting between the two sides in the MTN8 after a two-legged semifinal clash in the 2018 tournament where Cape Town City triumphed on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate score and went on to lift the trophy. Catch the action live on Showmax Pro.

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Taariq Fielies scored the winner in the first leg for City played in Cape Town, before Toni Silva grabbed a rare goal for Mamelodi Sundowns as they won 1-0 in the return fixture in Tshwane. That sent the game to penalties and City triumphed 4-2 after Silva and Anthony Laffor missed from the spot.

The only other knockout clash between the sides was a Nedbank Cup quarterfinal in 2018 that Sundowns won 2-1. Percy Tau and Hlompho Kekana were on target for The Brazilians, while Surprise Ralani netted for City. Sundowns therefore edge the head-to-head in cup games 2-1.

The teams have met on 13 previous occasions in all competitions and the record is exactly even, with six wins each and just a single draw. Sundowns have outscored their opponents 17-14. That is due to their two league clashes last season that finished 2-0 (away) and 3-0 (home) to The Brazilians.

Lebo Manyama, Kermit Erasmus and Ralani are the leading scorers in this fixture for City with three goals each. Ralani is the only player still at the club, with Erasmus having crossed over to now play for Sundowns. Of the other City scorers, only Fielies and Edmilson Dove, who have netted against Sundowns for the club before, remain in the squad.

Lebohang Maboe, Hlompho Kekana, Keletso Makgalwa, Lyle Lakay and Peter Shalulile lead the scoring for Sundowns in this fixture with two goals each. The latter two are likely to play in the final on Saturday, with Lakay a former City player.

In fact, Lakay was part of the City team that lost the 2017 MTN8 final in a penalty shoot-out against SuperSport United. Lakay took the first penalty for City in the shoot-out and missed. He had left the club by the time they won the title the following year.

Quite extraordinarily given their recent success, Sundowns have never lifted the MTN8 trophy in its current guise. Their last win in the competition was all the way back in 2007 when they beat Orlando Pirates 1-0.

Co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi has lifted the trophy since then, he led Lamontville Golden Arrows to the title in 2009 with a thumping 6-0 victory over Ajax Cape Town. That remains the biggest win in a knockout final in South African football history.

Since Sundowns last lifted the MTN8, they have won the CAF Champions League (2016), CAF Super Cup (2017), six DStv Premiership titles (2013/14, 2015/16, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21), three Nedbank Cups (2008, 2014, 2019) and two Telkom Knockout (2015, 2019).

If Sundowns win it will be the fourth time they have won the trophy and move them into outright third on the all-time list after Kaizer Chiefs (15 wins) and Orlando Pirates (10). At the moment they are level with SuperSport United, Swallows FC and BidVest Wits.

Sundowns have appeared in the final on nine previous occasions, winning in 1988, 1990 and 2007, but falling short in 1992, 1994, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2016.

Cape Town City have appeared in every MTN8 competition since the club was formed in 2016. They were beaten finalists in 2017, but returned to the final to lift the trophy the following year. After that the club lost in the quarterfinals for two years in a row, but have made it back to the decider for the third time in six seasons.

City coach Eric Tinkler was in charge of SuperSport United when they beat his current club in the 2017 MTN8 final. Tinkler had just months before left City for Matsatsantsa, having guided the Mother City side to third place in the league in their maiden season, as well as the Telkom Knockout trophy. He found immediate success in the MTN8, but left the club after nine months in charge.

Both Tinkler and Mngqithi will be hoping to become just the seventh coach ever to win the trophy multiple times. Stanley ‘Screamer’ Tshabalala won on three occasions, while Kaizer Motaung, Jeff Butler, Eddie Lewis, Muhsin Ertugral and Gordon Igesund each won twice.

Sundowns’ penalty shoot-out win over Kaizer Chiefs in this year’s quarterfinals ended a run of four straight losses via spot-kicks in the MTN8 competition, including to City in the 2018 semifinals and to Chiefs in the 2008 final.

City lost a shoot-out to SuperSport in the 2017 final, but then beat both Sundowns and Matsatsantsa via spot-kicks in the 2018 edition. The only other shoot-out they have been involved in was in the first round of the Telkom Knockout in 2019 when they lost to Chiefs.

Both of City’s two previous MTN8 finals against SuperSport were played at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium. Their only other knockout decider was the 2016 Telkom Knockout, also against SuperSport, which was played in Polokwane. So it will be the first time they have met a team other than SuperSport in a cup final in what is their fourth appearance.

#MTN8 FINAL Stadium Entry Protocols: pic.twitter.com/WRSpYBasQe— Official PSL (@OfficialPSL) October 29, 2021

Big Match Feature: MTN8 Final

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