Nelspruit is the venue for Saturday's MTN8 Final and as was the case last season Orlando Pirates clash with Stellenbosch FC.
Orlando Pirates:
Pirates are appearing in the final of this competition for the fourth successive season and they have lifted this trophy in 4 of the last 5 campaigns. The Bucs were 2-0 winners at home to Polokwane in the quarter finals at the start of the season and after both legs of their semi final clash with Sundowns finished 1-1 it was Pirates who held their nerve in the penalty shoot out.
In the Betway Premiership Pirates are in fifth spot with 3 wins and 2 defeats against their name. Those 3 wins came in their last 3 league outings, away to Chippa (3-0) and at home to Stellies and Orbit Collage (both 1-0). Pirates started with a pair of surprise defeats. The opening round saw them go down 1-0 at home to Sekhukhune in Orlando and they were on the wrong end of another shock in their second league game which saw them lose 2-1 at Marumo Gallants.
Stellenbosch:
In the MTN8 Stellies were 3-2 winners at home to Amazulu (after extra time) in the quarters and they saw off Sekhukhune 3-1 across the 2 legs of their semi final to set up another crack at landing a major trophy.
Stellies Betway Premiership form is a touch underwhelming with just 4 points to show from their first 5 matches. Their first league win came at the fourth time of asking when they edged out Marumo Gallants 1-0 in a home fixture and most recently they went down 1-0 at home to Sundowns. Prior to that they lost 1-0 away to Pirates, drew 1-1 at Magesi and they started with a 2-0 home defeat to Kaizer Chiefs.
Recent Head to Head:
The teams have already met in the Betway Premiership this season and Pirates were 1-0 winners in Orlando last month
In last season's MTN8 final which was staged in Durban Stellies took an early lead but Pirates were level at 1-1 by half time. It stayed that way until injury time and 2 late Pirates goals gave them a 3-1 win.
The Betting:
At the time of writing Betway have Pirates at 9/10 to win the game, the draw is 22/10 and Stellenbosch are priced at 3/1
*Regulation time markets, odds are subject to change
Verdict
Pirates dominance of this competition in recent times is hard to get away from but a number of their squad have been away on international duty whilst Stellies gave almost their whole squad a few days off.
To what degree that will be a factor here is open to debate but I'm swerving the match result in favour of a play on both teams to find the net in regulation time.
Bet: Both teams to score? (yes), at 11/10 with Betway
Note, odds are subject to change