Mamelodi Sundowns, Cape Town City, Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United are the last four teams standing in the exciting annual battle for the R8-million prize money.
The Brazilians will take on The Citizens in the first semifinal at the Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (15h00), before Amakhosi visit Matsatsantsa at the Luca Moripe Stadium on Sunday (15h00).
Lekgwathi, who is an MTN8 ambassador after being the only captain to lift the trophy back-to-back with the Buccaneers, feels the big guns won’t have it easy as last year’s finalists will be looking to emulate their passages.
“It’s going to be tough. SuperSport are the defending champions and Cape Town City were last year’s finalists, so both teams will want history to repeat itself,” Lekgwathi tells snl24.com/kickoff.
“It won’t be easy for both Chiefs and Sundowns, and they’ll be given a run for their money especially because it’s over two legs.
“It’s going to be good and exciting. In fact, SuperSport – after they beat Orlando Pirates and Bidvest Wits – will be confident against Chiefs, who will be saying they are not Pirates so they won’t get beaten, but I think it’s going to be a very close game.
“Chiefs’ confidence, on the other hand, is low because they’ve drawn their last two games and their coach’s comments about the players being tired is also weighing against them.”
Meanwhile, ‘Phinda Mzala’ believes if Sundowns can overcome the Cape-based outfit, they could be on course to end their MTN8 hoodoo by going on to lift trophy for the first time.
“I also like that lately the so-called ‘small’ teams are proving that this is a big competition, because it’s been a while since a ‘big’ team has won it,” he says.
“It shows that in South Africa there’s nothing separating the ‘small’ and ‘big’ teams, because as you’ll remember the MTN8 always used to be won by the ‘big’ teams. Now we’ve seen SuperSport, Wits and Ajax Cape Town winning the tournament in recent years.
“But, maybe this year we’ll see Sundowns going all the way, because they’ve never won it before [since MTN took over the sponsorship in 2008]. If they can beat City over two legs, then I think they can go on to win it.”