Nathan Paulse © Backpagepix

SuperSport defeated Free State Stars 2-1 in their quarterfinal, with Nathan Paulse and Franklin Cale scoring their goals.

Matsatsantsa then opened their league campaign with a 1-1 draw away to Ajax Cape Town, with Sibusiso Zuma getting his name on the score sheet.

Pirates narrowly beat Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0 in their quarterfinal thanks to a late penalty from Andile Jali.

The Buccaneers then came from behind to beat Golden Arrows 2-1 in their first league match thanks to goals from Thulasizwe Mbuyane and Tlou Segolela.

This will be the 12th cup meeting between the two teams, starting from a Bob Save first round match in 1996/97.

Pirates have won seven of the clubs’ 11 cup matches and suffered just one outright defeat, though SuperSport have twice triumphed on penalties.

The most recent cup game between the teams came in the quarterfinals of the 2010/11 Telkom Knockout, with Bucs claiming a comprehensive 3-0 win thanks to goals from Lucky Lekgwathi, Rooi Mahamutsa and Chiukepo Msowoya.

This will be the fifth time that the teams have met in the Top Eight Cup and the second since MTN took over the naming rights of the tournament. In the 2008 MTN8, United claimed their only outright cup win over Pirates, 2-1 thanks to goals from Fikru Tefera and Anthony Laffor.

Across all competitions, Bucs have claimed 26 wins compared to 14 for Matsatsantsa in the teams’ 53 competitive matches since 1990.

SuperSport do not have a good home record against Pirates (having won just six of 28 matches) and have lost their last three successive home matches (league and cup) against the Soweto giants.

The teams’ last meeting was a league match on 1 May 2012 at the same venue where a last minute goal from Lucky Lekghwathi seperated the two teams.

Kick-off is at 15h00.