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Senzo's heroics should inspire SuperSport

Cape Town - SuperSport United CEO Stan Matthews says the late Senzo Meyiwa's heroics against TP Mazembe should serve as inspiration in the CAF Confederation Cup final.

While on their way to making it to the final of the CAF Champions League in 2013, Pirates had to navigate their way past TP Mazembe, who four years later are SuperSport's opponents in the two-legged 2017 CAF Confederation Cup final, in order to make it through to the final group phase.

Bucs had taken a 3-1 first leg lead into away leg against Mazembe, but found themselves up against it in the DRC, where they encountered a hostile home crowd and some very questionable match officiating.

But a heroic performance by Meyiya, including two penalty saves, meant that Mazembe's 1-0 win on the day was not enough to stop the Sea Robbers from advancing on aggregate. 

Matthews now hopes his men can emulate Meyiwa's bravery, although he remains wary of biased officiating. 

"Hopefully, we will get a reasonable official. My mind goes back to Orlando Pirates playing against TP Mazembe and the late Senzo pulling off multiple penalty saves," he told KickOff website.

"One just needs to see the final is officiated in a fair and proper way. Strong officiating is good, fair officiating is better and that's what we want, then I think we can trade blows with Mazembe."

Going back just a few months and there is more inspiration for SuperSport, who held Mazembe, the defending champions, to two draws in the group phases of this year's competition.

"We did it home and away in the group stages. We came from a 2-0 down against them there and we showed good character so this team has a lot of self-belief at the moment.

"And you have to ride those waves while they come. Hopefully we can keep that momentum going it has been a long story for us," Matthews said.

Kick off is at 15:00 on Saturday. 

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