Following his team’s 3-0 thrashing of Bidvest Wits in the Nedbank Cup, Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has warned that it is far too early for the Glamour Boys to pop the champagne.

Amakhosi have in the past few seasons found the going tough in this Cup and were the victims of small teams, but against Wits they were in familiar territory.

A strong Absa Premiership side, particularly one that accounted for Amakhosi’s scalp in the Telkom Knockout last year, was just the sort of challenge to inspire a magnificent performance, and Chiefs emphatically did that.

“I was very pleased with the performance of the players. We took 10-15 minutes to settle in. We used a different system that we worked about four hours on and I think the players played the system very well,” said Baxter.

Two first half goals from defenders Siboniso Gaxa and Morgan Gould and a third from substitute Mandla Masango saw Chiefs cruise to a convincing win.

On Friday, 2012 losing finalists Mamelodi Sundowns needed a goal in the dying minutes of extra time to beat Ajax Cape Town and progress to the last eight stage of the competition. Left back Tebogo Langerman fired Pitso Mosimane’s side into the lead.

Meanwhile Chippa United carried their miserable league form into Cup football when they were dumped out of the competition by National First Division side United FC. Former Chiefs striker Lucky Khune scored in extra-time to hand Dan Malesela’s side a 3-2 victory.

There were no nasty surprises for Golden Arrows, who beat Vardos FC at Makhulong Stadium to book their place. Manqoba Mngqithi’s boys demolished the Tembisa side 4-0.

Defending champions SuperSport United needed the lottery of the penalty shoot-out against Moroka Swallows to move to the last 16. Swallows defender Roger Da Costa missed his penalty and Bradley Grobler scored United’s fifth penalty to knock Zeca Marques’ side out.

The game between Maritzburg United and University of Pretoria also needed penalties to decide the winner. Cuthbert Malajila was the hero for the Team of Choice.