Lebohang Maboe scored late to cancel out Thuso Phala’s goal as Maritzburg United held SuperSport United to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their MTN8 semi-final at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday night, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.

Eric Tinkler made three changes to his side that overcame Kaiser Chiefs in the quarter-final stage of the tournament, as he introduced Teboho Mokoena, Keagan Ritchie and Thuso Phala for the suspended Dean Furman, Jeremy Brockie and Cole Alexander respectively.

Fadlu Davids made a few changes to his side that recorded a 1-0 win against Mamelodi Sundowns in their quarter-final tie.

The home side enjoyed most of the possession in the opening exchanges of the encounter, with Maritzburg content to sit back and hitting them on the counter.

For all SuperSport’s possession in the opening exchanges, they failed to carve out any real opportunities in the final third.

The visitors displayed flashes of brilliance, but were often let down by their decision-making in the final third, with Lebohang Maboe the biggest culprit.

SuperSport looked to exploit their aerial threat and came agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the 33rd minute, but Thuso Phala’s ball into the area was narrowly headed over by captain Morgan Gould.

Bradley Grobler also came close to scoring, but his header proved too tame and was easily saved by goalkeeper Bongani Mpandle towards the end of the first half.

Maritzburg started the second half the brighter of the two teams, but fell behind in the 54th minute, courtesy of a wonderful counter-attacking move, which was finished off by Phala.

The home side had the ball in the back of the net minutes later from another counter-attacking move when Phala turned provider for Dove Wome to slot home, but the linesman adjudged Wome to have been in an offside position.

Maritzburg threw numbers forward in search of the equaliser and came agonisingly close to having levelled matters in the 72nd minute when Deolin Mekoa’s well-struck free kick cannoned off the crossbar.

Tinkler looked to stop Maritzburg’s attacking intent and introduced Alexander for Aubrey Modiba in the 73rd minute.

Maboe made up for his first-half wastefulness when he netted a vital away goal in the 84th minute.

SuperSport made a late attacking surge, but it proved too little too late as the two teams played to a 1-1 draw.

Photo: Muzi Ntombela/Backpagepix