DeMbare, Bulls lock horns again

at the National Sports Stadium.
Highlanders are the holders of the Cup after they beat the Glamour Boys in last year’s edition. However, the Bulawayo giants will not be able to defend their title after the organisers picked the clubs that finished in the top four of the Castle Lager Premiership last year.
And DeMbare will be playing the Mighty Bulls following their early encounters in the Bob 88 Super Cup third place play offs which Motor Action won 1-0. The Harare giants finally got the better of Joey Antipas’ charges in the NetOne Charity Shield, winning the season opener 2-1.
But the two teams’ duels don’t get boring and tomorrow they battle again for supremacy as the season is still in its infancy.
Yesterday PSL chief executive Ken Ndebele said the midweek fixtures, which were scheduled for this Wednesday, will now be played after two weeks as the consecutive two Wednesdays will now be occupied by the Independence programme.
“The top four teams have been picked to play in the Independence Trophy and we decided the team which finished on number one meets number three while number two play the team which finished fourth.
“There were supposed to be midweek matches involving the teams that were playing in the African safari but these are the same teams that would be playing in the Cup. From the calendar we got from Zifa the Cup was supposed to feature Zimbabwe Under-20 men’s team and Zambia but now it is involving Premiership teams and the following Wednesday the winners will meet in the final at National Sports Stadium while the third place will be played at White City,” said Ndebele.
The Premiership boss could not be drawn to comment on the prize money of the traditional Cup and said Zifa were handling it.    
FC Platinum and Hwange will also be meeting for the second time this season after they featured in the Bob 88 Super Cup final and the                 Zvishavane based side lifted the trophy when they beat Chipangano 1-0 at Rufaro.
Both mining sides were booted out of the African Safari this weekend as Platinum were thrashed 3-0 by Sudanese giants ElMerreikh in Khartoum while Hwange were also booted out in the Confederation Cup in agonising fashion when they lost on away goals rule following their goalless draw against Amal Atabara on Sunday night.
However, the other semi-final had to be moved to Thursday as Hwange will only arrive in the capital this afternoon from Sudan.
Hwange spokesperson Burzil Dube said the team is expected to proceed to Bulawayo the following day and hook up with the players who remained in Hwange as they were not involved in the Confederation Cup action this weekend. Chipangano would be seeking a revenge after they were denied the Bob 88 Super Cup by Kugona Kunenge Kudada.