Matshelane Mamabolo at Lucas Moripe Stadium
ATTERIDGEVILLE - The quest for continental glory continues for SuperSport after they booked a place in the Caf Confederation Cup quarterfinal with an easy 4-1 win over CF Mounana on Saturday.
Matsatsantsa a Pitori finished second in their group behind TP Mazembe, who scored late to beat Horoya FC 2-1 on Saturday.
Stand-in coach Kaitano Tembo and his bench celebrated enthusiastically, exchanging high-fives at the final whistle, while incoming coach Eric Tinkler joined them a little later having watched from the stands.
Tinkler though will be in charge for the quarterfinal clash against Zambia’s Zesco United who topped Group C with seven points.
SuperSport will host the first leg match to be played on the weekend of September 8,9,10, with the second leg scheduled for the weekend thereafter in Ndola.
It was pretty easy to see why Mounana are the group’s whipping boys as the easily capitulated whenever SuperSport put them under pressure.
.@SuperSportFC are through to the #CAFCC Quarterfinals 🙌🙌🙌 #SkeemaMatsatsantsa
— SuperSport United FC (@SuperSportFC) July 8, 2017
Beaten in all their five prior matches, the Gabonese never looked like changing the status quo as they hardly threatened Matsatsantsa a Pitori – especially in the first half.
Granted they pulled one back ten minutes after the break through Ellesah Mensah Jnr. But that was merely a consolation as SuperSport had killed the match off as a contest in the first half with four classy goals and then took a bretaher in the second stanza.
Bradley Grobler got the ball rolling just before the quarter-hour mark with a headed goal at the end of a brilliant team move that saw the homes side put together a few interchanges of passes before Aubrey Modiba crossed low for the striker to open the scoring.
It was soon 2-0 courtesy of a Thabo Mnyamane goal in a on-on-one with the goalkeeper following a counter-attack initiated by Thuso Phala who won possession deep in his own half.
The winger sent a through ball to find Jeremy Brockie in the heart of the field and the striker delivered a perfect slide-rule pass for Mnyamane who made no mistake.
Brockie then profited from another sublime move in which the genius of Reneilwe Letsholonayne shone through on 44 minutes.
The veteran midfielder received the ball inside the box and fooled a Mounana defender to open up a chance.
But instead of shooting for goal he delivered a cross to set the Kiwi striker for an easy tap in.
Ten minutes later, Brockie was completing his brace via a penalty kick that should never have been.
Set towards goal via a superb pass from deep in the field, Brockie lost his footing and fell, only for Somali referee Mohamed Hagi to inexplicably adjudge that Dieu Donne Nkoume Kemba had brought him down.
That was the match over as a contest, and it was not surprising that the home side approached the second half somewhat nonchalantly.
This though allowed Mounana to enjoy the upper-hand and even get the consolation goal to take back home.
In the end, however, it was SuperSport who were celebrating.