Chippa United coach Moloi now turns his full attention to Kaizer Chiefs

Chippa United coach Teboho Moloi says Sunday's Telkom Knockout Cup quarterfinal against Kaizer Chiefs in Port Elizabeth is not going to be an easy game.

While Moloi has every right to be apprehensive about a Chiefs side that's been tactically astute‚ especially away from home‚ United have every right to be brimming with confidence.

Having seen off Mamelodi Sundowns in Mdantsane to earn the right to face Chiefs‚ a beautiful brace from Sundowns reject Samuel Julies helped condemn defending league champions Bidvest Wits to a 2-0 defeat on Wednesday evening.

Chippa United have always traded on being giant killers but slaying two big teams in the space of three days is enough to take any coach into cloud nine.

“I normally start to think about the following game the following day but now I'm still on cloud nine after this win (against Wits)‚" he said.

"Once I wake up‚ this win will be forgotten.

"What I can say is that the Chiefs game is not going to be an easy one.

"Everybody tells us they are cup specialists so we have to prepare thoroughly for them otherwise we'll lose that game.

“To beat Sundowns wasn't child's play and you must know that in your next game‚ you'll be out of energy.

"They're not African champions for nothing and you can see why they won the Super Cup.

"To beat Sundowns with the quality they have in 90 minutes‚ there's a lot of energy you have to use and if I'd refreshed the team‚ it may have sent the wrong message in terms of losing the Wits game (in the league) and focusing on Chiefs (in the cup).

"I told the players I'd rather lose against Chiefs than to lose against Wits.”

Moloi said one of the reasons the Eastern Cape-based side has improved this season was because of the attention to detail they have placed in their defence.

Chiefs may have been held to a goalless draw by Polokwane City on Tuesday evening but they've punished defensively lax teams.

This was evident in their 3-0 and 2-1 wins against AmaZulu and Sundowns respectively where they capitalised on defensive errors.

It's also not often that an exciting side like Chippa keeps clean sheets but they've got four so far.

That includes keeping Wits and Sundowns scoreless.

Such defensive discipline will be an important keystone if they want to beat Chiefs on Sunday.

“It's not that we were drawing for the sake of drawing‚ if you looked at Chippa going forward‚ they always left gaps at the back and that's something we needed to rectify.

"The team can play and there's no doubt about that but the defending was a problem.

"It's not a slight on the players but there were qualities of defending that needed to be enhanced.

"At least now you can see that we can defend.”