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Chiefs out to spoil Ajax party

Johannesburg - Kaizer Chiefs will look to stop, or at least halt, Ajax Cape Town from lifting their first-ever Absa Premiership title this weekend when they lock horns in a league match on Saturday at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.

Kick-off at 15:00.

After the Amakhosi’s 2-0 loss to Mamelodi Sundowns in their last league match their chances of lifting the league title took a real dent. Presently, the side from Soweto trail the league leaders by six points with two games reaming.

Nonetheless, despite that fact Chiefs captain Jimmy Tau is adamant his side will not go down without a fight, “We are looking to dent Ajax’s title hopes. We are looking to salvage some pride after our last couple of performances. We are looking to dish out our best performance to regain the faith of the fans.”

On his team’s poor performance against Sundowns the right back says, “Against Sundowns we only have ourselves to blame, it was our own downfall. We should have won that game easily, we had enough chances in front of goal and we should have scored.”

Coming up against Ajax he is adamant his side will pick up victory, but Tau knows it will not be easy, “Ajax are a good team and it is always exciting to play against them. I like playing them because they don’t play too defensively and they like to attack.

“But we know it is not going to be easy as they are the league leaders at the moment. They play as a collective unit and work well together, and we have to be careful because they can score from anywhere.”

For Ajax they will be solely focused on winning as that may see themselves crowned PSL Champions provided Orlando Pirates fail to defeat Santos in their away match.

The side from Cape Town, though, according to their defender Nazeer Allie cannot afford to concern themselves with other teams’ results, “We are just focussed on Chiefs and taking it one game at a time. The three points for us is the most important and not what happens in other games.

Even Ajax midfielder Brent Carelse admits the pressure could get to them and they will not take their match against Chiefs lightly, “I don’t understand why people have ruled Chiefs out. I don’t think we should write them off. Realistically they might be out, but mathematically they are still there.

“We're not even guaranteed the title ourselves; we could still choke in the next two matches. Our goal is to just take it one game at a time.”

Coach Foppe de Haan’s team come into the game in a state of prolonged good form: they have lost just one of their last 13 league matches, a run which includes ten wins.

Ajax can also take heart from their last meeting with Chiefs in which they beat the Soweto giants 1-0 courtesy of a penalty from Carelse, and the midfielder is expecting another tight game, “Our games against Chiefs have always been tight affairs; we played our best game in the first round and we won, but you never know what Chiefs will bring, so anything can still happen.”


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