Five reasons why SuperSport will bounce back and stop Sundowns

The Tswhane Derby Part II on Wednesday night follows a 5-0 Absa Premiership thrashing of SuperSport United by their Pretoria neighbours Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld on Thursday.

TMG Digital has identified five reasons why SuperSport will bounce back to beat Sundowns at Lucas Moripe Stadium:

1) The quality of SuperSport’s squad and technical team

Surely it must be unlikely that a squad of the quality of SuperSport’s‚ and their brains trust‚ including coach Stuart Baxter and his technical staff‚ can capitulate twice within the space of a week even to African champions Sundowns.

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If Baxter can change some things around in his back four‚ who were far too static in the first match‚ then Downs might find themselves frustrated at what they might have expected to be a cake-walk.

SuperSport have shown themselves capable of frustrating Sundowns when they effectively parked the bus in a penalties Telkom Knockout defeat in November‚ which ended 0-0 by the end of extra time.

Similar tactics on the back of a thrashing might be expected‚ and could trouble the Brazilians again.

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2) Sundowns must be battered by now

Downs coach Pitso Mosimane admitted after his side followed up their thrashing of SuperSport with a ground-out 1-0 win against Free State Stars in Orkney that the effects of playing every three days are leaving their bruises on Downs’ players.

None more so‚ one would assume‚ than Khama Billiat – the architect of the thrashing of SuperSport in the first game – Percy Tau and Themba Zwane‚ who were targeted for roughing up by Stars.

Tau and Thapelo Morena also had to go off with tight hamstrings against SuperSport.

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3) Downs’ record at Lucas Moripe Stadium this season

Once Sundowns’ stronghold‚ especially while they were winning the 2016 Caf Champions League‚ since the Brazilians moved late last year to Loftus Versfeld – where they beat SuperSport last week – their forays back to Lucas Moripe Stadium have been less successful.

In their last four matches played in Atteridgeville Downs have won just once.

Sundowns drew against Bloemfontein Celtic in the league and lost against Lamontville Golden Arrows in the Nedbank Cup in their last two games at Lucas Moripe.

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4) It’s never easy to do it again

Winning twice in a row against the same team in the space of a few days has been shown in the past not to be an easy undertaking.

Baxter is a coach capable of coming up with a plan for specific matches and opposition‚ and he will have learned a lot for the first game.

5) It all seems too easy for Downs

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The record‚ the dominance stretching back years‚ last week's result‚ and SuperSport’s will to bounce back and stay in the title race – it all just seems to add up to a dangerous recipe for a slip-up based on overconfidence from Sundowns for the replay.

Teams in this situation can talk all they want about keeping their feet on the ground and not letting complacency creep in.

It often takes quite some effort mentally to not allow it in somewhere‚ though.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport