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Cape Town - Orlando Pirates' two-goal Soweto derby hero Luvuyo Memela wants his side to remain grounded ahead of their Nedbank Cup clash with Cape Town City on Wednesday.
Having suffered a defeat in their last match in Cape Town against Ajax Cape Town, the winger wants Bucs to maintain the kind of form that saw them beat Kaizer Chiefs 3-1 in their last match.
Memela is adamant his team are well prepared to continue with their impressive season under Serbian coach Milutin Sredojevic, that has seen them move from midtable earlier in the season to second place behind Premiership leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
"It’s not going to be easy playing against Cape Town City away; they are a good side playing good football and with a very clever coach in Benni McCarthy," he told the club's official website.
"They play attacking football and we expect them to come hard at us from start to finish. We have had the whole week to study them carefully and come up with a plan of how to deal with City on the day."
"For us, the preparations are two-fold. Firstly, we have studied the opponent and tried to identify weaknesses that we can exploit during the match, and secondly, we have worked on our own game and performance to make sure that regardless of what comes our way on match day, we are capable of dealing with it.”
The in-form winger, who scored a brace after coming off the bench in the 3-1 win over Chiefs last time out, said he is looking forward to playing in his home city of Cape Town.
"I’m very happy that I’ll be playing at home; it’s not every day that you are watched by your family live at the stadium," he continued.
"I am excited to play in front of my mother and I want to make her and my family proud, but I also understand that I can’t afford to be carried away because my job and primary responsibility on match day is to my coaches’ instructions and to the benefit of the team."
Memela has proved to be a player for the big occasions, and was also among the goals earlier this season as Pirates defeated Mamelodi Sundowns 3-1.
Kick-off is at 19:30.
