Cape Town City v Maritzburg United Betting Guide by OptaJabu

Cape Town City host Maritzburg this Wednesday, with the two teams looking for that one win that will ease their differing sets of worries. City need to break a recent string of poor performances which threatens to hamper their bid for a Top 8 spot. Maritzburg on the other hand, are still not safe from relegation and could be dragged out into an uncomfortable battle if midweek results don’t swing their way. We crunched the numbers to preview this Wednesday clash.

The goals are drying up a bit for Cape Town City, who have now been overtaken by Sundowns as the league’s top scorers. City have scored Over 0.5 goals just once in their last three games, and Over 1.5 goals in just three of the last 10 games. Coach Jan Olde Riekerink is still on administrative leave, and if his absence was meant to spark the Citizens back to life it has not worked.

1 – Cape Town City have failed to score in back to back league matches for the first time this season, and the first time since Riekerink’s opening four games in November/December 2019.

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Both scoreless games were away from home, and The Blue & Gold Army are much more confident on their own turf. They have failed to score just twice at home all season – the joint fewest of all sides. However, there will be fresh memories of Maritzburg’s victory in the corresponding fixture last season (1-0), which turned out to be Benni McCarthy’s last league game at the club. The visitors will be hoping for more of the same – a victory that could condemn successive City coaches to the sack.

1 – Maritzburg have lost just one of their last six matches away to Cape based opposition (CT City, Stellenbosch and Ajax), and have kept clean sheets on their last three visits to the Mother City.

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Ernst Middendorp is unbeaten in four league games against Cape Town City (Drew 1, Won 3) in all competitions, and even completed a league double against City last season. The German has also won on each of his last four visits to Cape Town with two different clubs, since November 2016.

However, they will have to improve defensively if they want to keep that run going. The Citizens are the only side in the top-flight that has scored more than 20 goals in home matches (24), with just one blank at home all year (8 games). We’re backing them to find the net at least once, bearing in mind they are the last team to score against a visiting Maritzburg – three goals in February 2019.

1 – Maritzburg have kept a solitary clean sheet in eight games played since the beginning of April, with Chiefs (12) the only side that has conceded more than them in that time (10).

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Thabiso Kutumela will be licking his lips at the prospect of facing a City side that recently conceded five goals to another KZN side, AmaZulu. The striker has scored 44% of his team’s goals in the league this season (12/27) – the highest proportion of any PSL player. However, even his goals can’t hide their poor away scoring record. You have to go back to January 2018 to find an away match where Maritzburg scored Over 2.5 goals – 48 games. Even this season, Maritzburg have scored Over 1.5 goals in an away game twice, with 11 of their away matches seeing Less than 1.5 goals for them.

9 – Maritzburg (9) are one of only two sides (alongside TTM, 6) that have scored less than 10 goals away from home this season.

Prediction