Mamelodi Sundowns gave a performance befitting African champions to defeat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 this weekend in a high-profile South African Premiership showdown.
Trailing to a Ramahlwe Mphahlele cross-cum-shot, the CAF Champions League title-holders levelled within two minutes through Tebogo Langerman.Recent signing Sibusiso Vilakazi snatched the early second-half winner by slamming a loose ball into the net after a Percy Tau attempt to score was blocked.Although Sundowns lie 12th in the 16-club standings, the Pretoria outfit have five matches in hand on most rivals owing to postponements caused by African commitments.A second defeat of the season left four-time former champions Chiefs four points behind pacesetters Wits, who won 1-0 at Platinum Stars, after nine rounds.
Wits have 19 points with two matches in hand, Golden Arrows and Cape Town City 17 each, SuperSport United 16 and Chiefs 15.Urged on by a near-capacity crowd in the 50,000-seat Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria, Sundowns and Chiefs produced one of the best league matches so far this season.No one was more surprised than former Sundowns captain and right-back Mphahlele when he scored after 39 minutes against the run of play.His cross looped over Uganda goalkeeper and 2016 Africa-based African Footballer of the Year nominee Denis Onyango, who did not react as he believed the ball was drifting wide.Chiefs’ players and supporters had barely stopped celebrating when Sundowns equalised two minutes later through another defender, left-back Langerman.He sneaked forward undetected and when the ball was played to him inside the box, Langerman rifled a hard shot across goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune and into the net.After livewire Tau had a close-range shot blocked on 53 minutes, former Wits midfielder Vilakazi struck what proved to be the crucial goal.Following weeks of having to play twice, either domestically or in Africa, Sundowns faced Chiefs after a 13-day break thanks to a FIFA international window.Looking refreshed, a Sundowns line-up including seven of the starters who beat Zamalek of Egypt 3-1 on aggregate last month in the Champions League final could have won more convincingly.However, it is back to a hectic schedule now for the African champions with home matches against Arrows and strugglers Highlands Park within the next seven days.Platinum goalkeeper Mbongeni Mzimela was red-carded in Rustenburg for conceding a first-half penalty which Eleazar Rodgers converted for Wits, a Johannesburg club chasing a first Premiership title.
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