Two goals scored within four minutes late in the second half saw Kaizer Chiefs snatch a 2-1 win over Free State in their Absa Premiership match at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
Chiefs were outplayed for 75 minutes and trailed after a quarter of an hour. They held no menace until an inspired substitution for Chiefs saw Sthembiso Ngcobo equalise for the home team in the 76th minute.
Four minutes later, Lincoln Zvasiya stole the victory with a speculative long-range shot, only to see the Stars keeper make a severe blunder and gift Chiefs the three points.
The visitors began the game with more intensity with Stars opening the scoring in the 15th minute through an unstoppable strike from Edward Manqele.
The Stars forward timed his run well to edge ahead of the Chiefs defence, as he gathered a lofted cross, and then finished off with a powerful shot deflecting into the net off the crossbar for his fifth goal of the season.
The Steve Komphela-coached Stars outfit, spurred on by the early goal, looked the more fluent side and stretched the Chiefs’ defence for most of the first period.
‘Interested spectator’
In the first half, Stars keeper Kennedy Mweene was little more than an interested spectator as he only had to deal with two tame shots on target.
Two minutes short of the hour mark, Chiefs came close to scoring. Bernard Parker broke his marker on the right-hand touchline and whipped a cross into the box, where Mandla Masango rose above the Stars defence but headed his shot over goal.
With little under 25 minutes remaining in the encounter and still trailing by a goal, Ngcobo stepped up as he beat two defenders to meet a cross in the area, and his header gave Mweene no chance as the scores were levelled.
Vladimir Vermezovic would have been resigning himself to two points lost at home, when Zvasiya’s shot from nearly 30 metres out should have been no problem for Mweene, but he allowed it to bounce and could only watch the Chiefs’ celebrations as they led for the first time in the match.
Stars, after conceding the two goals, looked predictably deflated as Chiefs rise to third on the log with 27 points. This is one point behind SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns. The visitors drop to fifth — now three places behind the Amakhosi. — Sapa