Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns had to come back from a goal down on two separate occasions before they eventually managed to squeeze past Chippa United in the quarter-final of the Telkom Knockout in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
The home side could not have asked for a better start than when they grabbed the lead in just the 13th minute of the match.
After a couple of speculative long-range attempts, Tercious Malepe split the Downs defence in half with a glorious ball to Augustine Kwem, who finished calmly passed Denis Onyango.
They continued to dominate and should have been 2-0 up moments later but Elvis Moyo blew the golden opportunity to put a real stamp on the match.
The visitors grew in confidence after that miss and could have been back on level terms shortly before half time when Mauricio Affonso managed to get his head to a cross before the on-rushing Patrick Tignyemb, but the Uruguayan disappointingly couldn't hit the target.
The Brazilians grabbed the equaliser five minutes after the break, though, as Phakamani Mahlambi made an instant impact off the bench by winning a penalty moments after he had been sent on by Pitso Mosimane. The spot kick was finished emphatically by Gaston Sirino.
Chippa regained the lead thanks to huge stroke of luck eight minutes later. Silas Maziya attempted to hit an audacious cross on the volley and his miss-timed looped over Onyango and into the goal.
The visitors reacted to going down again in a very similar fashion, by slowly working themselves back into the game by wearing their hosts down.
It paid dividends in the 70th minute when Tignyemb couldn't hang on to a Thapelo Morena cross and Sirino was on hand to tap in a simple goal for his brace.
Both sides threw caution to the wind in search of an equalising goal, but the attempts grew more speculative and less threatening as the players became increasingly tired.
Any hope Chippa had of grabbing a winning goal before heading to penalties vanished in the 101st minute when Tercious Malepe was shown a red card.
In opposition to how the match began for the home side, they could not have had a worse start to the penalty shoot out as Onyango saved their very first attempt.
Every single Sundowns player scored with their penalties while Lehlogonolo Masalesa missed the final kick of the match to ensure the Brazilians would advance to the semi-final.
