Sundowns ‘hoping and praying’ for Pirates to stumble again

“We always believe, you must always believe, so yeah, we believe,” said Modiba.

Aubrey Modiba has admitted that hope has been restored at Mamelodi Sundowns following Orlando Pirates’ recent slip-up in the Betway Premiership title race.

Pirates missed an opportunity to seize control of the league title last weekend when they were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by Durban City FC at the Orlando Amstel Arena.

A victory for the Buccaneers would have moved them level on 68 points with Sundowns, but would have seen them move to the top of the log table due to their superior goal difference heading into the final round of fixtures.

However, the stalemate means the title race will only be decided on the final day of the season this coming Saturday. Pirates are away to ORBIT College at the Mbombela Stadium to ensure they dethrone Sundowns, who have won the league for the past eight consecutive seasons.

‘We were watching Pirates’

Despite the odds firmly in the Buccaneers’ favour, Modiba and his Sundowns teammates remain hopeful of winning an unprecedented ninth league title in a row.

Speaking at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium last Sunday after scoring the winning goal during Sundowns’ 1-0 victory over Morocco’s AS FAR in the CAF Champions League final first leg, Modiba admitted the players were following the Pirates result closely.

“Yeah no, obviously, when it was a draw, we were watching that game,” said Modiba.

“When it was a draw, we still believe, we always believe, anything can happen but we also know the quality of Orlando Pirates, how bad they want the league.

“Hopefully in the last game against Orbit they have the same result, so we’ll just hope and pray. We always believe, you must always believe, so yeah, we believe,” he added.

Will Sundowns add second star?

Meanwhile, Sundowns are set to face AS FAR in the return leg of the CAF Champions League final in Rabat on Sunday, carrying a narrow 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Loftus.

Should they win, they will be the first South African team to add a second star with rivals Orlando Pirates having also won the title in 1995. Sundowns last won the Champions League in 2016 under then coach Pitso Mosimane