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Soweto Giants Kaizer Chiefs have reached the ultimate final after beating Bloemfontein Celtic 1-0 in their second-leg clash at the FNB stadium on Saturday evening.
Chiefs ultimately won 2-1 on aggregate after the clubs played to a 1-1 draw in the first-leg. Chiefs went into the game with the same starting line-up despite having new signing Edward Manqele who arrived on Friday, Siphelele Mthembu was yet again the man up front.
Meanwhile Celtic played with their eleven, keeping Geofrey Massa available on the bench.
It was George Lebese who gave Chiefs the win after a wonderful and skillful one-two with Siphelele Mthembu, driving it low in the bottom-right corner to make it 1-0 to Amakhosi before the first half. Yet again Patrick Tignyemb was the most busy of the two keepers and was effective in keeping Chiefs at bay, producing some wonderful saves.
In the first half there were few chances at goal but the best fell to Clinton Larsen’s men in the 18th minute when Lerato Lamola made a good pass to Keagan Buchanan who missed the target with only the keeper to beat. Before the dying minutes of the first half, Siphelele Mthembu nearly made it 2-0 but his effort was denied by the ever-working Tignyemb. Willard Katsande then got his chance at goal but his header went wide off the target.
Tignyemb did most of the work, pulling a double save from George Lebese and Tsepo Masilela. Late into the second half, Celtic did not look threatening at goal as Steve Komphela’s men hung on to their lead for a 1-0 victory. Sunday’s semi-final between Bidvest Wits and Ajax Cape Town will determine the team to play Chiefs in the final.
