Johannesburg — Coach Arthur Zwane has reiterated that Kaizer Chiefs are not prioritising between the Nedbank Cup and second place in the DStv Premiership as both achievements are important for the club.
Once the ‘Cup Kings of South African football’ Chiefs have endured a seven year trophy drought.
However, they can stop it from going to eight by winning the Nedbank Cup — they face Royal AM in the quarter-finals on Sunday — having missed out on the league and MTN8.
Amid their chase for the country’s premier club knockout competition, Chiefs are also gunning for the second-place finish which guarantees CAF Champions League football next season.
Chiefs' pursuit of that Champions League spot hit a snag last weekend though as they drew 1-1 with Marumo Gallants and dropped two points behind SuperSport United and Orlando Pirates.
But ahead of their visit to Thwihli Thwahla in Chatsworth, Zwane is not putting all his eggs in one basket, saying they are playing to win all their matches — both in the Nedbank and league.
“We don’t choose games. We play to win every game. As much as we want to finish in position two, we still want to win the cup as well,” Zwane said.
“That has been the culture of the club. And the history of the club is about winning things for our supporters. So, we take each game very seriously.
“So we are not going to select a game or say ‘no, this one is more important than the other’, we want to win all the games. The only thing we can do is juggle the squad around if needs be.”
Chiefs might be unbeaten in their last six matches, thanks to five wins and one draw, but they know they’ll have an uphill battle in Chatsworth.
After all, they’ll be up against a team that has beaten them in three of their four meetings.
“We all know that we are playing against a team that has been very difficult for us in the past two season. So it won’t be an easy one and moreover we are playing away,” Zwane conceded.
“They also won their last game, 3-1. And that alone tells you the depth they have in the squad after losing to Marumo Gallants. They’ll want to proceed to the next round.”
IOL Sport