Three goals in 13 minutes midway through the second half saw Ajax Cape Town down Golden Arrows 3-1 in a Telkom Knockout quarterfinal at the Athlone Stadium on Sunday evening.
It was an engrossing encounter between two of the PSL’s in-form teams, with home-ground advantage possibly the deciding factor in enabling the Cape Town club to join Free State Stars, Orlando Pirates and Bloemfontein Celtic in Monday’s semifinal draw.
The scoring blitz after what was a relatively even and goalless opening period was started by the enterprising Mabhudi Khenyeza, who ran on to a 35m pass from Nazeer Allie in masterly fashion before placing the ball into the corner of the net.
It was Khenyeze again who was in the picture eight minutes later when his pin-point pass paved the way for Siphiso Vilakazi to blast the ball into the roof of the net from close-range and delight the crowd of about 2 500 people.
Versatile defender Brett Evans was on hand to head Dipsey Selolwane’s corner into the net in the 73rd minute. But to Arrows’ unstinting credit they never stopped trying and Francis Kombi gave them a well-deserved goal with a rocket-like shot in the 77th minute.
But it was too little, too late for the team whose expectations in the competition had been high after a stunning 4-1 victory over holders Kaizer Chiefs in the previous round. – Sapa