It was an early start for the Amakhosi on Friday morning as they set out for Polokwane a day ahead of their Telkom Knockout last four clash with Cape Town outfit Santos at the city’s Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday evening.

For the second successive season Chiefs have made it to the semi-final of the Telkom Knockout Cup and will now be aiming to make it to their third final in four seasons, in order to do that the Amakhosi need to overcome a Santos team who succumbed them to their first league loss of the season just ten days ago.

Since their loss to Santos on November 10 Chiefs have bounced back in the best possible fashion, with a convincing 3-1 victory over Orlando Pirates in the Soweto derby last Saturday which has helped put behind them the loss to Santos.

On the back of the morale and confidence boosting win over Pirates Chiefs will be looking to put up a similarly offensive and overall sound performance like they did during the win over Pirates.

Chiefs have had a host of players missing through the week as they have been with their various national teams, and as a result have had limited time working together for the game. Still it would have pleased Chiefs coach Vladimir Vermezovic to have gotten his players back injury free.

Amakhosi striker Knowledge Musona who scored a brace during the win over Pirates last weekend was on target Wednesday evening for the Zimbabwean national team during a 3-1 victory over Mozambique.

Vermezovic will be hoping that the striker keeps up his scoring form on Saturday evening when Chiefs face Santos in a Cup game for the fifth time in their history. Facing Santos in Cup games has been a good omen for the Amakhosi in addition to defeating them during those previous clashes, Chiefs have ultimately gone on to win the tournament whenever they have overcome the Capetonians in a Cup competition.

The last cup meeting between the teams was during the opening round of last seasons Telkom Knockout Cup a game which Chiefs won via penalty kicks, Saturday’s clash will be the fourth time the teams will be facing each other in this competition apart from last seasons meeting they also squared off in the 2001 – 2002 and 2003 – 2004 Coca Cola Cup competitions as the Telkom Knockout Cup was previously known.

Long term casualties Kaizer Motaung Junior and defender Zhaimu Jambo aside The Amakhosi are pretty much at full strength for the game and in addition do not have any players suspended for the encounter. While defender Valery Nahayo is eligible to feature for Chiefs after missing the Pirates clash through suspension.