Mamelodi Sundowns moved to the summit of the Absa Premiership table, following their 2-0 victory against Golden Arrows on Friday night at the Princess Magogo Stadium, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.
Clinton Larsen made four changes to the squad that lost 3-1 to Polokwane City, with Wayde Jooste, Trevor Mathiane, Nduduzo Sibiya and Andile Fikizolo all being restored to the line-up.
Pitso Mosimane named an unchanged team from the side that defeated Ajax Cape Town 2-0 in their midweek Absa Premiership game. Motjeka Madisha retained his place alongside Ricardo Nascimento at the heart of the defence.
The game got off to a lively start, with both sides looking to attack each other in the early exchanges. The home side created the first opportunity of the game, when a passing move involving Khama Billiat and Mashaba resulted in Percy Tau finding some space down the left, but his resultant shot was skewed.
Mahachi should have put his side ahead in the seventh minute when he robbed Nascimento of the ball before making his way to goal, but the Zimbabwean was denied through an excellent save by Denis Onyango.
The visitors gradually started to find their feet, carving out the Arrows defence with their neat interplay, and were unlucky not to break the deadlock when Mathiane cleared the ball off-the-line in the 28th minute.
Arrows came agonisingly close to scoring in the 42nd minute when Sibiya’s ball into the area was connected by Fikizolo, but his headed attempt went inches wide of the post.
The second half started in similar fashion to the first, as Arrows looked to catch Sundowns on the counter-attack. This strategy almost paid dividends when Jooste did well to beat two players before playing Lerato Lamola through on goal, but the forward placed his effort into the side-netting.
Onyango too, did well to keep out Mahachi’s attempt with a powerful drive in the 56th minute as Arrows piled the pressure on the visitors.
Hlompho Kekana broke the deadlock for Sundowns in the 58th minute when he made no mistake from outside the area with a sublime side-footed strike.
The goal took the sting out of the Arrows attack, and Sundowns doubled their advantage in the 70th minute when Madisha headed home Teko Modise’s corner at the near post.
Sundowns saw the remainder of the encounter out with relative ease as they recorded a 2-0 victory to go top of the Absa Premiership table.
Meanwhile, Bidvest Wits kept their title aspirations alive with a 2-0 win against Highlands Park in their Absa Premiership tie at the Makulong Stadium, with Granwald Scott and Maliele Pule netting for the visitors.
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
