Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows will set the tone for the Carling Knockout Cup quarterfinals when they cross swords at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday night.

Having already clinched the MTN8, Miguel Cardoso will hope to guide Sundowns to another domestic title by lifting their first Knockout Cup for the club since the 2019/20 season.

But standing in Cardoso’s way of edging closer to the Knockout Cup glory is coach Mandla Ncikazi’s Abafana Besthende. Ncikazi recently made a sensational return to Arrows after five years at Orlando Pirates, serving as an assistant coach to Jose Riveiro and Abdeslam Ouaddou, respectively.

Ncikazi has already had his first taste of being back as a head coach when Arrows, when his side suffered a 1-0 defeat in the KZN derby against AmaZulu at the weekend.

Ncikazi targets attacking improvement

“I am just concerned with us in the attacking third. I’m concerned with us being less creative on the opponent’s half and scoring fewer goals, but I also saw with my eyes why we are where we are,” Ncikazi said after the game.

“When I first started at Arrows, I had the time. Right now, there is no time; we have another game on Tuesday [against Sundowns], so you want to train certain aspects, but you are also playing games.”

The 57-year-old will expect a positive reaction from his side and give Sundowns a serious run for their money.

Ahead of the game, Masandawana striker Iqraam Rayners said they are wary of the threat Arrows poses and expect a difficult match on Tuesday night.

“Knockout games are always difficult to play because you don’t know what to expect from the other teams, but as a team, we know how to win games like this, especially when it becomes difficult,” Rayners said.

“We always have a lot of opportunities against them, but we just have to make sure we punish them as early as possible because once we do that, the game will open up and we know we’ll win.”

“I think the Arrows coach [Ncikazi] is a good coach and when teams play against Sundowns, they know how to set up, but we just need to do our job and work as hard as possible to win the game and get the result,” Rayners added.

The game is scheduled to get underway at 7pm.