Chiefs v Sundowns? Let’s save that for the Champions League final!

All hail Kaizer Chiefs!

Amakhosi have been the laughing stock of Mzansi football for pretty much the whole of this season, so when an opportunity comes to single them out for praise, it is certainly worth using.

ALSO READ: Hunt – I will win trophies with Kaizer Chiefs

Gavin Hunt’s men gave a performance of staggering courage in Conakry on Saturday night to twice come from behind and draw 2-2 with Horoya AC, earning a place in the Caf Champions League quarterfinals.

Chiefs did it, too, without their main strikers Leonardo Castro and Samir Nurkovic, pulling a result out of the bag just when it was needed.

To say it has saved their season is no understatement. Chiefs are nowhere in the race for the DStv Premiership title, and already out of the Nedbank Cup.

A failure to make it through on Saturday would have literally left them with only a place in next season’s MTN8 to chase.

Instead, Chiefs can dream of continental glory, though they would certainly be outsiders for the Champions League crown, given the quality of teams left in the competition.

But stranger things have certainly happened, and a team certainly doesn’t necessarily have to be on top domestically, to take home the Champions League in any given season.

There have been signs, in any case, that Chiefs have started to at least find their guts under Hunt, unbeaten in their last seven games in all competitions, and beating Orlando Pirates and Wydad Casablanca at home either side of the international break.

In the Wydad game, Chiefs ended up with only nine men on the pitch and still hung on, which set them up nicely for the score draw that they plundered in Guinea.

Mamelodi Sundowns fans may be wondering what all the fuss is about, with their team in the quarterfinals for the umpteenth time, and having got there this time with consumate ease, even able to brush off a first defeat of the season on Friday against CR Belouizdad as an irrelevance.

Everyone has to start somewhere, however, and Chiefs should relish their position among the continent’s eight elite teams.

There is now the possibility of a Kaizer Chiefs v Mamelodi Sundowns two-legged quarterfinal, of course, and while this is an appetising prospect in many ways, it would be better for the country if both sides were kept apart for as long as possible in the competition.

This is the first time South Africa has had two teams in a Champions League quarterfinal and it would be amazing if both Chiefs and Sundowns could now also make the semifinals.

Imagine a final between Chiefs and Sundowns – how brilliant that would be for the status of the South African game on the continent, and for new Caf chief Patrice Motsepe.

He has already seen his home nation embarrassingly dumped out of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Pitso Mosimane won the Champions League with Al-Ahly in 2020, to follow his victory with Sundowns in 2016.

A Chiefs-Sundowns final, for the whole country, would add a new level of positive vibes.

Jonty Mark