The Clever Boys trounced the Citizens 3-0 in the last four of the 2016 edition before going on to claim eventual honours, and Johannes feels it’s time his Cape club exacted revenge for that defeat, although he acknowledged it won’t be easy.
“We want to do well in this cup – last season Wits beat us and exposed us,” he told reporters. “They are a difficult team to play against, but we’ll give it our best shot.
“As a team they are very strong … Gavin Hunt plays wide, and they put crosses in. The way they penetrate, they are a dangerous team to play against, and they’ve got some strong attackers – you can’t single out one because there’s so many – just look at their bench, and you can see how strong their squad is.
“So we have to bring our ‘A-game’ and defend well as a group. When we played them last week it was wave after wave of attack, but we defended well, and we know we’ll have to do that again this weekend.”
City have the upper hand this season however, having claimed a 1-0 league victory over the reigning Absa Premiership champions, and have conceded just one goal in their opening three fixtures this season, something Johannes admits his team have worked hard on.
“Last season we conceded lots of goals, and that’s something we’ve worked on in pre-season,” he says. “We’ve got the players to keep clean sheets, but it’s also about the defensive unit, and we have to defend well as a team. And I think we’ve done that better than we did last season.
“There’s still a long way to go, but the more clean sheets we keep, the better chance we have of being amongst the top teams in the league. So we’ll try keep as many clean sheets as possible.”
Kick-off at Cape Town Stadium is set for 15h30.