With Bidvest Wits setting the pace at the top of the Absa Premiership table with four games to go‚ Mamelodi Sundowns find themselves with an outside chance of defending their league title.
If Wits go on to win their remaining four matches‚ the Students will dethrone the Brazilians as league champions while at the same time coach Gavin Hunt achieving a personal milestone of his fourth championship medal.
At the moment‚ momentum is with Wits as they have won their last three league matches while Sundowns have had a mixed bag with one win‚ one draw and one loss that has affected them negatively.
Sundowns next and must-win match is against traditional rivals Orlando Pirates in Soweto on Sunday afternoon where sparks are expected to fly.
Downs coach Pitso Mosimane remained confident that in a league of swinging fortunes Wits' three-point lead far from spelled the end for the Brazilians.
“We need the three points but how do you know that if we don’t win against Pirates it is over? We don’t know who is going to win‚ we are playing Pirates and Wits are playing Maritzburg where anything can also happen and that is football for you‚” he said.
In their last two league matches‚ Sundowns have failed to win after a loss to Wits and a against Stars on Thursday but Mosimane is not panicking just yet.
“They are anxious and nervous but it is normal. You will never know what will happen in future but after this result‚ things are not good us to be honest.
“Whatever happens on the other side we need to win and if we don’t get it‚ we don’t get it‚” said Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane about his players after the 2-2 draw against relegation-threatened Platinum Stars on Thursday at home.
“I wish I could know what to say to them or do so that there are no slip-ups. I will continue to prepare the same way I did from the first game and what happens on the pitch I can’t control.
“The most important thing for us is to win our remaining games and stop hoping that someone will do us a favour. We want to win the league because it does not matter if you have won it before. Why should we not win the league‚” he said.
Looking back at the draw with Stars‚ Mosimane said the result was hard to stomach and the at Downs must improve on dealing with set pieces‚ which have been their undoing over the last two matches.
“It is a hard one to take and obviously we are disappointed with the result. I am also disappointed with the fact that we conceded from a set piece.
“Even the goal we conceded against Wits was a throw in. In that regard we are paying because we don’t learn from our mistakes but I am not disappointed with the play‚” Mosimane said.
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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