Cape Town City gear up for relegation play-offs reality

The Citizens suffered yet another defeat on Saturday night with log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns emerging 2-0 victors to drag City further into the relegation quagmire.

It now means Peral and his charges can only get to 29 points with two games remaining to avoid finishing second from bottom.

But the coach now believes their best chance could very well be to fight for their place in the round-robin league over the next few weeks.

"I think we have to be realistic, no, how many games we've got to win now? We've got to get a win and a draw maybe but even that possibly won't be enough. So, we are looking at two wins? I mean we are realistic, we knew that this was a game that if we could get something out of it, then we'll be looking a bit better,” Peral said.

“But we've also started thinking about what it is that we're gonna do and how we're gonna plan if we are in the playoffs. We have to, we'd be stupid not to. We concentrate on the next 90 minutes, we put all the effort in training sessions and everything we can into the next 90 minutes while also looking over our shoulders and seeing how the guys are doing in the NFD, and keep ourselves open to all the possibilities."

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Sundowns overpowered City in a high tempo game at the Cape Town Stadium, and Peral’s reaction told the story.

"Difficult game, it's a team that we know that if you go behind and you chase, then you've got a problem, you know. We try and stay in the game; the instruction is to try and stay in the game as long as possible and then maybe take some more risks in the second half, but then we concede a goal,” he added.

“We tried and played them offside, half their line steps up, the other line stays back and the guys stay on side and scores a goal and from that minute on it becomes very difficult to chase Sundowns, even at home.

“Especially in the situation we are in, you don't get into this situation if you've got players that can do damage from 1-0 down."