Komphela asked for 'champions' attitude

Cape Town – George Lebese admits that Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela’s half-time talk is what spurred their comeback victory over Maritzburg United.

After a 120 minutes of football, Chiefs finally prevailed victors over Komphela’s former employers at the FNB stadium in a MTN8 quarter-final clash.

United opened the scoring in the eighth minute as Kurt Lentjies broke through on goal following some poor communication in defence and rounded goalkeeper Reyaad Pieterse to put Mandla Ncikazi's side 1-0 up.

At the end of the first-half Thamsanqa Teyise doubled the KZN team’s lead after heading home a corner-kick.

In the second stanza, Chiefs came out with a different attitude as they took the lead within 18 minutes courtesy of a Lebese brace and a Bernard Parker strike.

“It was more about us coming back and playing like champions, after what the coach said to us in the half-time team talk,” says Lebese as quoted by KickOff.

“He told us that we are already two down, if they have to win this match let them win by eight goals, we have to give everything we have.

“We did give everything,” said the midfielder.

However, Chiefs defensive woes continued during the second half as Siyanda Xulu and Ivan Bukenya demonstrated their lack of communication skills once again while Pieterse did not help the cause at all.

Komphela’s side remained composed as Amakhosi showed grit in extra-time as Xulu redeemed himself with an acrobatic finish to put Chiefs ahead.

Hendrick Ekstein put the final nail in the coffin and finished off a well orchestrated move as Chiefs remained on course to defend their title.