Staff Reporter.
Kaizer Chiefs narrowly avoided the nightmare scenario of giving up a four-goal lead in their Caf Champions League quarterfinal tie against Simba SC.
Chiefs were thumped 3-0 at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, but advanced 4-3 on aggregate.
A 4-0 win for the Amakhosi in the first leg in Soweto last weekend suggested this match should have been a straightforward affair, but the Tanzanian hosts, in front of a rowdy and partisan crowd, put in an outstanding display that almost brought them back from the dead.
Simba enjoyed early dominance and forced Chiefs onto the back foot, with Luis Miquissone threatening down the left flank and almost finding the target with a shot from a tight angle in the seventh minute.
Chiefs missed out on a great chance to add to their overall advantage, as Lebogang Manyama provided a great cross from the right to pick out Leonardo Castro, but the unmarked striker could not make a clean connection with his header.
Just past the midway point of the first half, Wekundu wa Msimbazi reduced the aggregate deficit to 4-1, with John Bocco forcing a shot beyond goalkeeper Bruce Bvuma to spark hope for the hosts. The strike arrived on the counter-attack, with a great diagonal pass from Chris Mugalu then lobbed into Bocco’s path by Cletus Chama.
The Simba pressure continued after the restart and a second goal arrived in the 56th minute: Miquissone did great work to get past Reeve Frosler down the hosts’ left before playing a dangerous low cross which deflected off a Chiefs defender and was turned home at close range by Bocco.
Meanwhile the third goal did arrive in the 86th minute, with Chama driving into the box and producing a perfectly-placed right-footed shot which beat Bvuma’s left-hand, made it 3-0 on the day (3-4 overall) and teed up a dramatic finale.
Chiefs will face either MC Alger or Wydad Casablanca in next month’s semifinals. The teams are locked at 1-1 ahead of their second leg clash in Casablanca later this evening.
Despite guiding the team through this unprecedented run into uncharted territory, both for himself and the Soweto giants, coach Gavin Hunt refused to take any credit and insisted the achievement is for the club.
“Well, it was history just to get into the group, and then… But obviously, ja… It’s not for me, it’s for the club. It has nothing to do with me, it’s only the club,” Hunt told Chiefs’ media.
“It was obviously very difficult today but I mean, we got through and that’s the most important thing. There was no danger for 25-26 minutes, we got a corner and then they scored from that corner, which put us a little bit back and turned the first half [in their favour].
“They got a second and third [goal] and obviously made it a little difficult, and then we defended for the last bit of time.
“They’re the home team, they obviously were going to throw numbers forward – they left four [strikers] up, and they just played it long in there.
“If you don’t win the first and second ball, you’ve got problems and that was the problem. We couldn’t get [the ball] down for various reasons; we kept giving it away, but ja, the most important thing is that we’re through – it’s a knockout game and we’re through.”