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With Ajax and Santos playing later on Saturday, the point earned allowed SuperSport to open up an eight-point gap on the rest of the teams, having said that, though, the defending league champions did not play as well as they have in recent times.
Credit though to Celtic defenders Thabo Nthethe and Gary Goldstone, who neutralised all of the threats posed by SuperSport throughout the game.
SuperSport started off by trying to stamp their early authority on the match and could have had a goal in the third minute, Anthony Laffor sending a delightful chip off a short corner to the far post where Bongani Khumalo with a well executed scissor kick was inches wide of the Celtic goal.
An elementary mistake by Emile Baron as he picked up Bongani Khumalo’s back pass inside his own penalty area in the 18th minute could have had dire consequences for the hosts, but United managed to fend off the threat from the free kick with Daine Klate getting his body in the way to send the ball for a Celtic corner.
Johannes Motlhaping’s well floated corner was headed by Oerson past Baron but unfortunately the cross bar was where the ball hit and not the back of the net, on the rebound the ball fell to another Celtic player; Bongani Ndlula’s header was a weak one and Baron managed to jump and pluck it out of the air.
SuperSport were finding it difficult to break down Celtic in open play and had to rely on set pieces to trouble the visiting defence. Klate curled the ball from a dead ball situation in the 37th minute from the right towards the back post.
Celtic keeper Tignyemb came out to punch clear the ball but missed it and was spared the embarrassment of conceding a soft goal by his captain Thabo Nthethe, who ran in front of United’s Thabo September and flicked the ball with his head away for a corner.
Defenders on both sides were firm in this match and gave away hardly any space in dangerous situations and it showed particularly in the second half as it took a quarter of an hour for either team to come up with a real goal scoring chance after the restart.
It was United though who tried to break the deadlock in the 60th minute with Klate striking a wonderful volley with his left foot towards goal after being set up by Carelse. His effort on goal had Tignyemb scrambling across the ground to his left and he blocked the ball with his palms. He pushed it into the path of Jabulani Maluleke, who hit the ball at the first time of asking; Celtic did get bodies in the way and the ball was blocked.
A minute on and Celtic substitute Excellent Walaza was played in and worked himself into the SuperSport United penalty area. In a one-on-one situation with Baron he tried lifting the ball over the keeper, but credit to the SuperSport net minder who had narrowed down the angle for the striker and managed to block the ball with his leg.
In the final four minutes Moses Spandeel came close on two occasions to helping Celtic snatch a win. In the 86th minute he managed to get his header past Baron off Tlou Segolela’s searching long ball, but his effort could only hit the side netting.
On the stroke of full time he set Celtic on the counter attack but he was let down by his teammates as no one was in the United six yard area to finish off his cross from the left.
