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| Kaizer Chiefs |
CAPE TOWN – A solitary goal inside the opening five minutes was enough to see Cape Town City emerging victorious from a hard-fought MTN 8 quarter-final clash with Kaizer Chiefs at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night.
It was a second successive defeat of the season for Steve Komphela’s Amakhosi side after a midweek loss to Bidvest Wits in the league.
To be fair to the visiting side, they were unfortunate not to score on several occasions and found home keeper Shu-aib Walters to be in inspired form in between the sticks, the 35-year old named as Man-of-the-Match afterwards.
The Cape side struck early, Matthew Sim sprinting the length of the field on a blistering counter-attack to get on the end of a cross into the box before chipping the ball past the on-rushing Itumeleng Khune in the sixth minute of the game.
The goal spurred Amakhosi into action, but they struggled with the final ball in and around the City box, Walters not overly troubled apart from a Lewis Macha header which he tipped out for a corner, while Willard Katsande fired wide from range.
There was always the danger of Amakhosi conceding a second goal as City looked dangerous nearly every time they broke, Khune having to be alert to deny Lebogang Manyama seven minutes before half-time, while Lehlohonolo Majoro looked set to score in added time, but Lorenzo Gordihno was able to get back and make a vital challenge.
The action continued unabated at both ends of the park after the restart, the near capacity crowd, the bulk of them Chiefs fans, creating an electric atmosphere on a warm evening in the Mother City.
City had two long-range efforts from Roland Putsche and Bongolwethu Jayiya, which kept Khune on his toes, while the Soweto giants’ Zambian marksman Macha missed with a back-post volley on 60 minutes.
The final 25 minutes belonged solely to the Glamour Boys as Eric Tinkler saw his City side camped out in their own box.
But the visitors could just not find the net, William Twala saw his shot glancing out of play off the upright, while Edward Manqele forced a great save out of Walters with five minutes to go.
It was back-to-the-walls stuff from the Mother City side in the closing stages of a pulsating game, but they were able to hold on for their second consecutive victory of the new season.`
Source: enca.com
Tag:MTN8, Kaizer chiefs, Cape Town City