Marumo Gallants head coach Dan 'Dance' Malesela has welcomed the Carling Knockout semi-finals draw with open arms, noting that they will give as much as they get against favourites Mamelodi Sundowns.
Gallants were drawn to face star-studded Sundowns, who easily brushed off Kaizer Chiefs 4-0 in last Saturday's quarterfinal.
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Meanwhile, Bahlabane Ba Ntwa electrocuted Stellenbosch FC with a 1-0 score line, true to the cup competition's slogan: Fak'Ugesi.
"I must be excited to reach the semi-finals. We try and plan to progress. We were fortunate to play Stellenbosch on Wednesday, it gave us a clearer picture of what to expect from them," admits Malesela, speaking exclusively to KickOff.com.
"Facing Sundowns, it all depends on how you plan on the day. Yes, it's a tough one, but we were all bound to play them in the league anyway. You cannot avoid these things. you cannot pick and choose who you want to play against. Probably we could have faced them in the final anyway.
"So, it's a tough one and you have to prepare properly and see what you can get out of the game. Any team is beatable, and any team can beat you. It's about how the players handle themselves on the day. One of the biggest challenges in this type of game is to remove fear from your players.
Sometimes players approach a match too worried and too scared, and they may not progress. So, we must try at all costs to remove fear. We are also in the same league as Sundowns, so why should we be worried about them beating us and stuff when we are playing in the same league?," adds a bullish Malesela.
The former Sundowns centre-back believes it is suicidal to approach a match with the mentality of expecting a loss.
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"We need to be very smart and very relaxed against Sundowns and take the match as any other match. Of course, there is that feeling of saying we've got nothing to lose, especially after they beat us 4-1 in the league match.
"I think it's only the league match against Stellenbosch where we didn't score. Other than that, we score in almost all our matches. Hopefully, that will be the case against Sundowns. We will take it from there. We will just need to remove fear."