A cold Thursday night in Port Elizabeth at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium saw Kaizer Chiefs edge out Orlando Pirates 4 – 3 in a sudden death penalty shootout to reach the final of the Vodacom Challenge.

Amakhosi will play Manchester City in the Challenge final at Loftus on Saturday at 3pm.

It was one of the most dramatic penalty shootouts between the two Soweto giants and had the 30 000-strong crowd on the edge of their seats.

Both goalkeepers, Moeneeb Josephs and Itumeleng Khune, did their best to psyche out their opponents in the shootout. Bucs paid the price by missing three and having one saved. Chiefs missed two and had one penalty saved. The winning penalty was scored by Rooi Thabang.

Despite changing over 1-1 at the interval, Amakhosi had the better of the first half. Chiefs took the initiative from the opening whistle and were rewarded when Josta Dladla made it 1-0 after ten minutes when he latched onto Abia Nale’s defence-splitting though ball and fired his shot into the far corner giving keeper Josephs no chance.

Josephs kept the Buccaneers in the game with two breathtaking saves — a rocket from Knowledge Musona and a powerful Mandla Masango strike in the 13th and 20th minutes respectively.

Josephs did well on both occasions as Chiefs threatened to overrun the shell-shocked Bucs. Then Pirates captain Lehlohonolo Seema was wide awake to head away a cross from Musona as Lawrence Molekwane rose to head home the cross from close range on 29 minutes.

But from the breakaway Chiefs were caught flat footed and livewire Dikgang Mabalane found Malawian international midfielder Josephy Kamwendo, who beat keeper Khune with a sweet shot to make it 1-1 against the run of play.

Josephs did well to deny hard-working Masango a goal on the stroke of half time with another fine save.

Amakhosi started well at the start of the second half but it was Bucs newcomer Andile Jali who forced Khune to make a smart save in the 55th minutes as Bucs hit Chiefs on the counter attack.

Both coaches made a number of changes to try and find the winner but the second half was a lot closer fought than the first 45 minutes with Bucs putting Chiefs under pressure and enjoying more possession.

Chiefs seemed to lose the drive and rhythm they had in the first period. Josephs was a virtual spectator in the second half.

The one surprise on the Chiefs team sheet was the absence of striker Kaizer Motaung junior, who was booed by the fans in Durban on Tuesday night where Amakhosi were beaten 1-0 by City.

Motaung junior was not even among the substitutes named by coach Vladimir Vermezovic. The Serbian coach did say beforehand he would be rotating his players.

With neither side taking any risks it was no surprise when the match went to the dreaded penalty shootout.

Source + Pic: supersport.co.za