Absa Premiership title race still open after Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns lose
The top two positions in the Absa Premiership remained unchanged after both Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns lost their respective matches on Sunday.
Chiefs and Sundowns suffered 1-0 defeats to Bidvest Wits and Baroka F.C. respectively to leave both sides locked on 53 points with just two games left.
Wits’ Cameroon forward Evanga netted the winner in the 93rd minute punishing Chiefs for their wasteful finishing, with Samir Nurkovic guilty of missing the simplest of tap ins shortly before the goal.
Victory for Wits lifted them up to third above SuperSport United, into the league’s final Champions League spot and just four points off the top two.
Unlike Chiefs who were stunned at the end, Sundowns trailed for much of the game after Namibia’s Ananias Gebhardt gave Baroka the lead just before the midway point in the first half.
Baroka’s shock win took them out of the relegation zone into 13th place, two points and two places above the danger zone.
Sunday’s other game saw Bloemfontein Celtic and bottom-of-the-table Polokwane City play out a barren draw.
In Saturday’s games, SuperSport United was unlucky not to even get a point from its game against Orlando Pirates as they missed two penalties in a 2-1 loss at the Ellis Park Stadium Johannesburg on Saturday.
Despite SuperSport United having the better of the first half, it was Pirates who took the lead in the 29th minute through Maliele Pule only for Luke Fleurs to level 12 minutes later.
Pirates went ahead again just before the hour mark through Zakhele Lepasa who had been on the pitch for less than two minutes before SuperSport squandered two excellent chances to level the match and take the lead.
Bradley Grobler and Thamsanqa Gabuza both had their spot-kicks saved by Pirates goalkeeper Wayne Sandilands in the 63rd and 72nd minutes respectively. Sandilands had an outstanding match also pulling off a number of saves.
Fagrie Lakay netted a hat-trick for Cape Town City who thumped Golden Arrows 4-1 while Bongi Ntuli’s goal was enough for Amazulu to see off Black Leopards 1-0. Rodney ramagalela’s late equalizer earned Highlands Park a 1-1 draw against Maritzburg United who scored through Pogiso Sanoka.
