Moorosi Tsiane
ALL roads lead to Setsoto Stadium this afternoon as country’s big guns, Bantu, lock horns with bitter rivals, Lioli, in a potential decider of the Econet Premier League championship.
Both teams come into today’s match with four matches to play before the curtain comes down on the league, but Bantu are top the 13-team table and could be seven points ahead of Lioli with a win.
The Mafeteng outfit has 45 points while Lioli sit on 41.
Fireworks are guaranteed each time the two sides clash as they have dominated the domestic league for the past six years sharing all the trophies on offer until Matlama broke the trend by clinching the LNIG Top8 cup this year.
Bantu won the reverse fixture at Ratjomose Ground 2-1 but eventually lost the points after Lioli protested that the defending champions fielded players who were fraudulently registered.
Lioli eventually won the case and were awarded with the three points and three goals of that match.
Now the bragging rights will be at stake as Bantu will want to continue their dominance over Lioli as the later has won four of the eight encounters since the 2013/14 season while the other four matches ended in draws.
A win for Lioli will increase their chances of challenging for the title as they would have narrowed the gap between themselves and the leaders to just one point.
On the other hand, Lioli would have almost clearly surrendered the title to Bantu who would then enjoy a-seven-points lead on the table.
A Bantu win today would also hypothetically mean they would need just one win from their remaining matches to be crowned the champions.
Beating Lioli would be just another motivation for the James Madidilane coached outfit that sank to an all-time low after the player registration scandal.
After today’s fixture, Bantu play away to Majantja.
Another motivation for Lioli would be the fact that they last won the league honours in the 2015/16 season.
If they lose the title, Tse Nala would have, for the first time in eight seasons, ended a season without a trophy after the Top4 and the LNIG Top8 trophies were won by both Bantu and Matlama respectively.
There is no doubt that Lioli would not want to be the ones to hand their biggest rivals the title while Bantu on the other hand would be out for revenge after they were docked for the benefit of Lioli.
This is no doubt an emotional encounter that will take something special for any of the sides to walk away with the three points.
May the best team win!
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