The two teams will meet in the last 32 of the competition at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday (15h00).
The Chilli Boys' spirits are still very high after last week's 2-0 win against fellow strugglers Maritzburg United in a league encounter, a result that broke an 11-match losing streak for the Port Elizabeth side. In 2018 Chippa were knocked out in the last-16 of the Nedbank Cup.
Meanwhile, Pitso Mosimane's Sundowns have not lost a single league game in the 15 they have played this season, while they were eliminated in the semi-finals of the cup last term with a 3-1 loss to Maritzburg United.
"Yeah no, a very difficult game," Larsen tells snl24.com/kickoff.
"But a nice one as well because you know it's not the pressure of three points, which we faced within the league. So you know, as much as we want to do well in the cup, everybody knows our priority is the league, and to save the team. So the boys can relax and enjoy the occasion and hopefully put in another good performance."
Asked if he plans to use some of the fringe players against Downs, Larsen was guarded in his response.
"Well, I can't give too much information to you to give Pitso (laughs). What I'm saying is we will put out a strong team. Like I said, we would like to go through to the next round so we will put out a strong team and give it our all. You know there's already an upset in the Nedbank Cup if you look at what happened with Polokwane against Tshakhuma. So you know we will try to do the same. Not many people will give us a chance to get a result against Sundowns but you know football works differently. With a little bit of luck and a good performance, who knows what's possible.
"I expect the same as we've seen over the last six, seven years, a very strong Sundowns team regardless of whichever eleven. They put out a team, which imposes itself on teams, a team that's dangerous. With the technical players they've got, if you look at (Lebohang) Maboe, (Gaston) Sirino, (Themba) Zwane, (Anthony) Laffor, (Thapelo) Morena just to name a few. Highly technical players that can win a game at any moment.
"So ja, I expect all those things from the Sundowns team and like I said, any team that has a chance of beating Sundowns needs a little bit of luck. I think that's what was missing from Highlands Park if you look at their last performance. We need a little bit of luck but we also need to do the right things. Defensively we need to be sound and not make silly errors and leak goals, and the few chances that you create your need to tuck away you know. That's the difference in playing top teams like Sundowns. You need to be strong in those two departments."