Cape Town City braced for heavy weather against visiting Pirates

Cape Town City will host defending champions Orlando Pirates in the first leg of the MTN8 semi-finals on Wednesday at Cape Town Stadium.

The match was initially scheduled for Tuesday but had to be postponed due to severe weather conditions in the Western Cape.

The decision to postpone the match was made on the advice of the City of Cape Town authorities and stadium management, who reported gale-force winds averaging speeds of 67km/h.

The adverse weather has led to collapsed buildings and blocked roads due to fallen trees, and affected stadium facilities. Tickets purchased for the match will remain valid for the rescheduled fixture (kick-off 6pm).

The Citizens will be aiming to gain an advantage by playing at home first in the two-legged tie.

“Pirates, playing at home or away, is always a home game (for them), they get massive support, but on a personal note, I’ve always felt that the fuller the stadium – whether your supporters or the opposition’s – it makes you raise your game another level,” Tinkler said. “So, I don’t think that plays an effect (on the game).”

“I think the fact that still in this competition away goals count, it’s very important to keep that clean sheet, especially when playing at home.

“They’ve got so many qualities, they have a massive squad to choose from, their (pre-season) preparations have been exceptional, obviously being able to go to Spain and play against the type of opposition that they’ve played against.

“But we saw them drawing away to a team from Madagascar, so they do have frailties, and we’ve got to go out there with full belief in ourselves, knowing where their strengths lie – they are a very good team on transition, they like to build up and play through the phases.”

City do have a couple of injury worries ahead of the all-important clash with central defender Lorenzo Gordinho a doubtful starter due to a broken nose, while new midfield signing Carlinhos from Angola has been ruled out.

“We’ve had a bit of unfortunate injuries with Lorenzo breaking his nose against Sekhukune, which puts him in doubt for the game against Pirates and then we lost Carlinhos to a long-term injury, who’ll be out until February or March, if we’re lucky,” Tinkler said.

The former Buccaneers mentor remains confident, though, that City can get a result against his former club.

“It’s a big club that we're playing against, obviously a team that over the past couple of seasons has won this competition and it’s not going to

be easy but we’re going to go out there, back ourselves, play with confidence, play with self-belief and look to take the game to them, play without fear.”