- Mamelodi Sundowns will look to end a 14-year drought of not being able to win the MTN8 Cup.
- Masandawana come up against a new-look Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday in the quarter-finals as the domestic season kicks off.
- Brazilians head coach Manqoba Mngqithi is aware of counterpart Stuart Baxter as the Scotsman looks to turn around the fortunes of the Soweto giants.
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Manqoba Mngqithi expects new-look Kaizer Chiefs to come out "guns blazing" when the two sides meet on Sunday at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Masandawana will entertain their fiercest rivals Amakhosi in the MTN8 quarter-finals as the domestic season officially kicks off.
On Wednesday, Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter appeared before the media, talking up the mouth-watering encounter and alerting Sundowns that the Naturena side was ready to vie for any major silverware on offer.
Meanwhile, less than 24 hours later, Mngqithi has finally responded.
He admitted that he knew the quality of the Soweto giants as they lured 10 new players to the club, including marquee signing Keagan Dolly.
And Mngqithi also praised Baxter, who returned to Amakhosi for a second stint in May.
"Based on what he said in the media, he is also coming out guns blazing," Mngqithi said.
"They want to reassume their status of being a big team in the country because their transitional game and counter-attacking means you will not make many initiatives to take the game for yourself.
"We know for a fact that Baxter is very good in transition in my mind, I am already thinking about players like (Kgaogelo) Sekgota and Keagan Dolly, but there are a very big contrast regards to (Samir) Nurkovic who very much is a box striker.
"So, if they want to play a counter-attacking game, he will need to start on the halfway line, which I don't think is his strength.
"That will be a bit of a compromise, so that's why I think they may want to come out and play in and around our box, which will make it a very interesting contest.
"Stuart is a very good coach; I've got a lot of respect for him. It's going to be interesting how he approaches the game."
The kick-off is at 15:00 on Sunday.