Gallants assignment first up for Chiefs

Marumo Gallants will be Chiefs first opponents of the 2024-25 season as the Amakhosi get set to play in their 55th top-flight campaign, the game against Gallants at the Toyota Stadium on Saturday 14th May at 17h30 will be Chiefs 1701st league game since their first league outing against African Wanderers in April 1971.

When Chiefs take to the field to face Gallants in what will be their 29th season in the PSL since its formation for the 1996-97 season, Amakhosi will feature in their 865th league game over the past 28 years. The meeting between Chiefs and Marumo Gallants will be the fifth overall between the teams since they first met ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.

The teams met again in 2022-23 a season in which Gallants were eventually relegated from the top- flight, Gallants return to the Premiership after purchasing Moroka Swallows’ status and have since renamed and relocated to Bloemfontein. Over their previous four league clashes Chiefs are undefeated with the only win in this fixture coming Chiefs way in the form of a 1-0 home triumph on the 3rd May 2022 at FNB Stadium with Njabulo Blom setting up Keagan Dolly for the match winner.

Three other games between the teams have ended in draws, on both occasions that Gallants have hosted Amakhosi the games have ended all square the teams first meeting in 2021-22 in Polokwane ended goalless. While their other clash in 2022-23 finished 1-1 on the 11th September 2022 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Mahlatse Makudubela’s 12th minute strike was cancelled out by Zitha Kwinika’s 84th minute equalizer for Chiefs.

The last league meeting between the teams saw Chiefs as hosts on the 6th May 2023, go ahead through Ashley Du Preez on 6 minutes only for current Chiefs striker Ranga Chivaviro to level on 36 minutes for Gallants.

The Toyota Stadium now becomes the third different stadium in which Chiefs will be hosted by Gallants, having played them at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane in 2021-22 and faced them at the Royal Bafokeng Palace in Rustenburg two seasons ago.

Chiefs also have a commendable record when beginning a league campaign in the PSL era, they have won 15 of their previous 28 opening fixtures of a PSL season (D8 L5). Chiefs’ biggest win in their opening league game of a PSL season was a 6-0 victory over AmaZulu in 2012-13 on their way to eventually winning the league that campaign.

Chiefs biggest win historically in their first league game of a season was an 11-1 triumph over African Wanderers on 17 April 1971 a game in which Pule ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe scored four goals and Otto Malaza a hattrick. Amakhosi’s first ever league game in the PSL era was a 1-0 triumph over Jomo Cosmos away from home on the 10th August 1996, the late Thabang Lebese scoring Chiefs only goal.