Carling Knockout: Magesi send ‘under pressure’ Pirates an early waring – It will be easy for us

Magesi FC coach John Maduka is optimistic his team can repeat last season's heroics when they face Orlando Pirates in the Carling Knockout.

Dikwena Tsa Meetse shocked Mzansi by eliminating the Buccaneers from the competition thanks to their 3-2 win at the Orlando Stadium. As fate would have it, the two Premier Soccer League teams will be playing against each other in the quarter-final.

While Bucs will be aiming at avenging the initial loss, last year, the defending champions have one mission: to go all the way once again.

Maduka concedes it will not be an easy outing; however, he remains confident of making the last eight.

The former Bloemfontein Celtic player believes the Soweto giants' pressure might work in his team's favour.

Every opponent is difficult, but…

“It’s gonna be tough, I was not there [when they won last season]. It’s gonna be tough but these are cup games, anything can happen. We’ve done that before and last season, we did that, the team did that,” he told the media.

“They went past Orlando Pirates. We know that this time it’s not going to be easy because they know that the last time this team played them, it did well. Every opponent is difficult, even if we got any other team, not Pirates, it would have been very, very difficult.

“Maybe on this one, we can say the pressure is on Pirates because when you play these games, everyone expects Pirates to win. They have played [ten] games and won them all. The pressure is on them, and because of that, maybe this is the game where it will be easy for us to do well,” Maduka concluded.

After the international break, the Sea Robbers will play St Eloi Lupopo from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first leg of the CAF Confederation Cup's second preliminary round. Magesi will be hosting TS Galaxy in the Premier Soccer League.