A goal late into injury time from Knowledge Musona earned Kaizer Chiefs a nail-biting 2-2 draw against Bloemfontein Celtic in an end-to-end Absa Premiership clash played at a packed Seisa Ramabodu Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was heartbreaking for Celtic coach Clinton Larsen and the home fans, but Chiefs deserved their point as they never gave up in a tremendous contest.
Chiefs had the home side under a lot of pressure in the second half and got their reward when Musona scored his 10th goal of the season with only a minute of referee Jerome Damon’s optional time remaining.
It was Celtic’s fourth consecutive draw and moves them to 26 points, but the draw prevents Chiefs from overtaking their archrivals Orlando Pirates.
Bucs are still top with 32 points, with Amakhosi on 30 points.
Both sides contributed to a pulsating entertaining opening half in which Celtic edged Amakhosi 2-1.
Celtic rocked title-chasing Chiefs when they took the lead in the fourth minute when Moses Spandeel scored his fourth goal of the season after collecting a pinpoint cross from Prince Olomu.
Shell-shocked Chiefs
Spandeel took advantage of slack defending from Valery Nahayo and was able to walk the ball into the net.
Two minutes earlier Spandeel had set up Olomu with a tremendous defence-splitting through ball, but Chiefs keeper Itumeleng Khune was quicker to the ball and smothered the danger.
Phunya Sele Sele, roared on by their fans in the capacity crowd, nearly increased their lead in the sixth minute when unmarked Luyanda Bacela was given a free header which inched fractionally wide of the woodwork.
But the livewire Bacela made no mistake in the 15th minute when he scored his first goal for Celtic after his move at the start of the season from Santos when he latched onto a tremendous pass from Olomu and held his nerve in a one on one situation with Khune to pick his spot past the Chiefs keeper to make it 2-0.
Chiefs were shell-shocked at this stage and struggled to get going. But to their credit Amakhosi pulled up their socks and fought their way back into this highly charged showdown.
Celtic keeper Patrick Tignyemb did well to deny Mandla Masango a goal in the 18th minute when the former Cameroon under-23 keeper pulled off a great save of a fiercely struck shot from Musona in the 31st minute.
Chiefs winger Abia Nale wasted a chance to score a minute later when he collected a clever cross from Josta Dladla, only to fire straight at Tignyemb. Khune came to the rescue in the 345th minute when he did well to block Olomu from making it 3-0 after another defence-splitting through ball from Spandeel.
Broken hearts
At the other end Tignyemb did well by stopping another goal-bound shot from Masango in the 35th minute.
Chiefs pulled a goal back out of the blue when Steven Ncanana beat Tignyemb with a blistering 25m rocket that flew into the net in the 39th minute.
Ironically, seconds before the goal the impatient Chiefs fans were howling for Ncanana to be taken off. But his goal silenced the boo boys.
Then nerves got to Tignyemb when he dropped Masango’s cross in the 42nd minute as Chiefs started to put the home side under a lot of pressure searching for the equaliser.
Chiefs, who were more patient after the break, had Celtic under a lot of pressure in the second half. Chiefs won five corners in the first 25 minutes of the second period to underline their dominance.
Tignyemb did well to block another Masango effort on 56 minutes.
But Chiefs’ 23-year-old midfielder Siyabulela Songwiqi was unlucky when he came on as a substitute, only to go off minutes later due to an injury and was replaced by the goalkeeper’s brother Lucky Khune in the 78th minute.
Tignyemb was one of the busiest Celtic players in the second half and did brilliantly in the 83rd minute when he stopped Musona from equalising with a good save off the Zimbabwean-born striker’s shot form the edge of the area.
But with time running out Musona broke the home-side fans’ hearts with a well taken goal in the dying seconds. — Sapa