City shot down by Arrows

by Staff Reporter

Saturday Apr 06, 2019. 17:01

Cape Town City’s hopes of moving into the top three of the Absa Premiership were dashed on Saturday afternoon when they went down 1-0 away to Golden Arrows at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.

Abafana Bes’thende’s strength in depth paid dividends, as they brought Knox Mutizwa and Lerato Lamola off the bench in the second half and the two combined to secure a valuable victory over the Citizens.

The teams traded good chances in the ninth minute of the match, with Sibusiso Sibeko heading over the bar for Arrows, before Siphelele Mthembu nearly beat goalkeeper Maximilian Mbaeva to a low cross a few seconds later.

Both teams seemed to struggle on a rough playing surface which made carpet football difficult to properly execute, though City tended to look the more effective team and they had another threatening moment late in the half when Mthembu got on the end of Chris David’s corner kick but couldn’t keep his header down.

Following a goalless first half, Arrows were the first to threaten a deadlock-breaker in the second stanza, with Danny Venter seeing his powerful shot superbly turned away by Peter Leeuwenburgh on 51 minutes.

City’s David then had three notable shots at goal: the first and third tested Mbaeva in the Arrows goal, while the second deflected off a defender and flashed just wide of the mark. The midfielder had an excellent game and was perhaps the most influential figure throughout the 69 minutes he was on the pitch.

Arrows had a wonderful chance to take the lead on 73 minutes when Sibeko did brilliantly to flash a dangerous cross through the six-yard area from the left of the box, but the ball was just too strong for substitute Knox Mutizwa to reach.

However, Mutizwa showed great composure and vision to create a goal for Arrows in the 82nd minute. The Zimbabwean beautifully dummied one defender before picking a perfect pass to give fellow sub Lerato Lamola a tap-in for 1-0.

The striker’s fifth goal of the season proved to be enough to separate the teams, with Arrows picking up the three points to move into ninth spot on the table, while City remain in fourth.

Golden Arrows (0) 1 (Lamola 82’)
Cape Town City 0

Arrows: Mbaeva, Sibisi, Bilankulu, Mzava, Lunga, Mathenjwa (Mutizwa 57’), S. Dube (Jooste 69’), Phiri, Venter, Matloga, Sibeko

City: Leeuwenburgh, Mkhize, Fielies, Cupido, Edmilson (Seedat 76’), David (Ralani 69’), Mokeke, Kewuti, Erasmus (Roberts 76’), Links, Mthembu