Aden McCarthy rose from the bench to score the decisive penalty that helped Kaizer Chiefs to a shootout first preliminary round second leg victory against Kabuscorp and advance to the next round of the Caf Confederation Cup.
The Glamour Boys started the match trailing 1-0 from the first leg against the Angolan side last weekend but yesterday Amakhosi reversed the result by a similar scoreline after Glody Lilepo pounced on a ball parried back into play by Anselmo Mweni.
With the match tied 1-1 on aggregate, the game went to the lottery of penalties.
Chiefs gloveman Brandon Petersen gave his side a huge helping hand by saving a Lucas Moises strike. Amakhosi were perfect, converting all five. Gaston Sirino, whose penalty was saved in the 1-1 draw against Marumo Gallants on Wednesday, led the way as Reeve Frosler, Thabo Cele and Flavio Silva followed suit.
Second-half substitute McCarthy sealed the deal with the final kick to spark wild celebrations of relief at FNB Stadium. For his goal, Lilepo atoned for his glaring miss from an almost similar position when he went for power rather than place the ball past the keeper.
This time, he made sure Mweni parried a Dillon Solomons piledriver in the path of the Democratic Republic of Congo forward whose calm finish sent the entire Chiefs bench, led by interim coaches Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef, into rapture.
Prior to Lilepo’s goal minutes before the break, Pule Mmodi’s effort was blocked by Mweni, while Bradley Cross sent his shot skywards as Chiefs delivered a display with improved intensity to the 1-1 Betway Premiership midweek draw against Gallants.
At Orlando Stadium, Orlando Pirates ran riot as Tshepang Moremi and Yanela Mbuthuma each scored a double, the 4-0 victory of the afternoon capping a 7-0 aggregate drubbing of Lesotho champions Lioli.
Moremi scored on either side of half-time, and his fine free-kick was the best of the lot as the Buccaneers suffocated their opponents.
Mbuthuma got his account going, clocking his goals in the space of two minutes, as the merciless Pirates put their opponents to the plank.
Bucs boss Abdeslam Oauddou flexed the depth of his squad, as he rang the changes by handing starts to Cemran Dansin, Nkosikhona Ndaba, Evidence Makgopa, Sipho Mbule, Oswin Appollis and Moremi, who were all non-starters in the hard-fought 1-0 win over Siwelele on Tuesday night.
Pirates went into this Caf Champions League first preliminary round second leg on cruise control courtesy of a 3-0 advantage from the first leg at the Free State Stadium earned from two goals by Tshegofatso Mabasa and a third from Appollis.
Yesterday’s margin of victory could have been even greater had Mbule and Appollis been precise with their finishing.
