Staff Reporter.
Kaizer Chiefs kept their hopes of qualifying for the CAF Champions League quarter-finals alive with a 1-0 win over Wydad Casablanca.
Chiefs made two changes from their win over Orlando Pirates, as Yagan Sasman got a rare start alongside the return of Lebogang Manyama while Khama Billiat, Leonardo Castro and shot-stopper Itumeleng Khune were named on the bench.
Horoya also won on Saturday night, beating Petro De Luanda 1-0 away to keep their second place in Group C of the continental competition. This left Amakhosi still stuck in third place and with a mammoth task in Guinea.
And they will have to do the battle without two of their influential players in Daniel Akpeyi and Samir Nurkovic who were red-carded in Saturday’s game.
Tempers flared up and the tension was almost visible between the two sides and just 13 minutes into the match, the referee had to break up a scuffle. Amakhosi striker, Samir Nurkovic got into a head-butting incident with Wydad’s Amine Farhane – both got themselves early entries into the referee’s bad books with yellow cards after the scuffle.
It was clear that Amakhosi were the more determined – and probably desperate – of the two sides and sometimes unnecessarily hurried their attacks. At the other end, the Moroccans’ keeper took his sweet time to restart the game whenever the ball went out. And their players went down at the slighted of touches that even a feather would have brought them down.
A low-slung missile lob by Khune released Nkosingiphile Ngcobo down the left. The midfielder’s cross was intercepted by the head of centreback Farhane, but looped to Bernard Parker on the right, who cleverly placed a header past keeper Aissa Sioudi.
In the end Chiefs held on to a crucial victory that took their tally to eight points but they remained in third place, equal on points with second-placed Horoya.