Mbabane: Both Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns will face teams who cannot afford to play for anything but a win in Saturday’s blockbuster final round of the Absa Premiership‚ Amakhosi coach Ernst Middendorp has said.
The swinging fortunes and swirling mathematics of Wednesday night’s penultimate round in the 2019-20 relegation bunfight were just a taster of what is to come on Saturday‚ where the battle to avoid the drop will also have an affect on the outcome of the championship.
Leaders Chiefs have 56 points and a +21 goal difference meeting second-last Baroka FC (28 points) at Bidvest Stadium. Second-placed defending champions Sundowns (56 points‚ +18 goal difference) meet third-last Black Leopards (29 points) at Dobsonville Stadium.
Baroka (-9 goal difference) can still be automatically relegated but it will take a heavy defeat and for last-placed Polokwane City (25 points‚ -17 goal difference) to pull off an unlikely win by a big margin against Bidvest Wits.
So both Baroka and Leopards need a win to escape or be sure of remaining above the second-last playoff position.
“It’s a very competitive last match day. We have Baroka in position 15‚ Sundowns have to compete with Black Leopards who are one point above Baroka‚” Middendorp said after his team beat Chippa United 1-0 at Orlando Stadium in Wednesday’s penultimate round.
“Both teams sitting in positions 14 and 15 cannot just go and give it away‚ or take it easy.
“We will see in both locations that the fighting spirit in these two matches will probably decide what’s going to be the outcome at the end of the day.”
Sundowns beat Polokwane City 3-0 at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday night.
-Sowetan
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