Cape Town - Sporting Clube de Portugal beat hosts Ajax Cape Town 4-2 on penalties to advance to the final of the inaugural Cape Town Cup at the Cape Town Stadium, in Green Point, on Friday.
Sporting will now meet Crystal Palace in the final on Sunday at 3.30pm. The match will be preceded by the third-place playoff between Ajax and SuperSport United.
SuperSport earlier in the evening were thrashed 4-0 by English Premiership side Palace.
Grandwald Scott had the first half-chance for the hosts as he pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the area in the 13th minute, but his attempt was pulled wide.
The Portuguese visitors took the lead in the 19th minute with their first serious attack of the game. Sporting began to press the Ajax defence, and with a quick-fire passage of play including short-accurate passing, Jefferson Nascimento made the run in the box before crossing for Carlos Mane who nudged the ball home for a 1-0 lead.
Ajax spurned a golden opportunity to level the scores in the 29th minute. Scott, on this occasion, turned provider as he put in a defence-splitting pass for Bantu Mzwakali who surged his way into the box, but his shot was deflected wide of the post by Sporting keeper Rui Patricio.
Ajax were stretched once again on the half hour mark as Islam Slimani got the better of defender Rivaldo Coetzee in the air, but the powerful header was just over the crossbar.
Moments later Slimani had another good chance as he met a cross in the Ajax area, but his shot was met by keeper Anssi Jaakkola who pulled off a reaction save to prevent his side going a further goal down.
Slimani continued to threaten as he was able to meet another cross in the area on the 40 minute mark, but unlike his earlier attempts his shot was way off target.
Just past the hour mark, Mzwakali had probably the best chance of the evening when he was left one-on-one with just Patricio to beat but the Ajax player inexplicably deposited his shot into the crowd.
Referee Lwandile Mfiki awarded a penalty in the 68th minute when a Sporting player was adjudged to have handled the ball. Cecil Lolo stepped up for Ajax and made it 1-1 from the spot.
Ajax Cape Town hit the lead for the first time in the 80th minute. Franklin Cale ran onto a cross ahead of the Sporting near the centre circle, and in a good turn of pace surged towards the box and once inside the area picked his spot to fire into the back of the net to make it 2-1.
Less than four minutes later, Sporting restored parity. From a corner Ruben Semedo rose unmarked in the six yard area and deflected the ball past a despairing Jaakkola to make it two goals apiece.
Later it would be the lottery of penalties which would decide the encounter.
ANA