JOHANNESBURG — Bloemfontein Celtic will face Kaizer Chiefs twice in a space of two weeks.
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The two sides meet in the league on Sunday and again, in the Nedbank Cup football quarter-finals on Saturday — April 13.
Kickoff at the Free State Stadium on Sunday is at 3:30pm.
Celtic coach Clinton Larsen said his club will take it one game at a time.
“All our focus is basically on the upcoming league match. We are not even looking at the cup game as yet. There is an old cliché of taking one game at a time. It is very important for the club to collect three points on Sunday in order to achieve our objective to finish in the top five,” Larsen said.
“We’ve got to make sure that we are at our best against Chiefs. We are playing the team that has set the pace in the league. It’s not going to be easy. But we’ve got a very good home record and have toppled some of the big teams in the past. We’ll try to do that again on Sunday,” he said.
Larsen will not lose any sleep over facing a Chiefs side who are sitting comfortably on top of the log and have lost only one game so far this campaign.
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“Orlando Pirates were on top of the log when we faced them and we beat them both in the cup and league. We’ve done the same with Free State Stars who are also a very good team. So the form stands for nothing at this point. Why can’t the same be done against Chiefs?” he asked.
“There isn’t a team we are scared of playing. The team has started to believe that we can take on and beat the best teams in the league.
The players are applying themselves the same way we want them to as the technical team. There is no reason to fear anybody. I think that a lot of teams are now starting to fear Celtic, which is good for us. We’re confident that we can compete with the best and that’s exactly what we’ll do on Sunday.
“Players don’t need any kind of motivation when they play against Chiefs or Pirates — as a former player, I know that. As coaches, our jobs are very easy with regard to them being motivated. They all want to showcase their talents and dish out their best performances whenever they play against the so-called giants of South African football. Sunday will be no different and I’m sure they will go out and give good accounts of themselves.
Larsen will have all his players available, except for Auguston Leonard who picked up a knee injury at training.
