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Johannesburg - Bloemfontein Celtic will hope to spring a surprise on Orlando Pirates on Wednesday evening, when they meet at the Orlando Stadium for an Absa Premiership match.
Kick-off at 19:30.
With one eye already on Saturday’s Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs, the Phunya Sele Sele are eager to take advantage of the Bucs’ potentially distracted frame of mind and cause an upset.
Celtic, of course, are also on the right form of confidence going into the encounter after they extended their unbeaten run to four games, across all competitions, with a 1-0 win over Chippa United last Saturday.
“We have had some good results lately so we are all confident going into the game,” says Celtic’s towering defender Dominic Isaacs.
“I don't think there is any reason for us not to cause an upset against Pirates, after all its eleven versus eleven on the day.”
Isaacs is all too familiar with the build-up to the Soweto derby as he was involved in it during his four-year tenure at Kaizer Chiefs.
And even though Pirates may be potentially boosted with the return of Siyabonga Sangweni and Benni McCarthy for the encounter, the 30-year-old assures his team is going there for the victory.
“Having the Soweto derby is a situation I have been in the past. Pirates will have one eye on the big game no matter who says anything different,” added Isaacs.
“Siyabonga Sangweni and Benni McCarthy are on the verge of returning and they bring stability into their team. We have previously played against them and Celtic did very well. We are going there for the three points.”
It cannot be excluded, though, that the Sea Robbers are also in high spirits after they secured an impressive 4-0 away win over Djabal FC in the CAF Champions League last weekend, and coach Roger de Sa is hoping that they can carry on riding the wave of victory.
“Getting over the first match in the Champions League is obviously a great boost for the team ahead of the league match on Wednesday,” explained De Sa.
“I hope we will be able to take full advantage of the momentum we have gained from our trip from Comoros and try to get maximum points.
“The team looks good and a few players were given enough time to recover for this match (against Celtic), so we are pretty much ready to get a good result at home.”
With the derby against their bitter rivals just days away, the Mozambican is well aware that they need a win against their midweek adversaries in order to carry over some form of confidence.
“We cannot afford to drop points at home anymore, the fans in particular can expect a great match of football on Wednesday,” concluded the coach.
