POLOKWANE – The match was played at the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex on Sunday. Lions were on the attack.
Their early free-kick attempt took a deflection of Baroka’s Sbonelo Vusumuzi Ngubane and wrong-footed their keeper, Ayanda Dlamini, to give the visitors a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
Baroka equalised soon after the start of the second half when Evidence Makgopa capitalised on poor defending.
Both sides had chances to win the game in regular time but failed to do so and extra-time ensued.
Another own-goal by Baroka’s Ethen Sampson in the 95th minute gave the Lions hope of winning the match but Manuel Kambala levelled the scores once again in the 102nd minute of the match.
The score remained at 2-2 after extra-time and penalties followed. Misses from the penalty-spot by Lions’ Reanetse Ramatlhapeng and Jason Arends proved crucial as Baroka marched onto the quarter-finals with a 4-2 penalties victory.
Lions head coach, Basie Hendry says he was not disappointed by the results and happy that they took Baroka to the 120th minute.
“Coming from the ABC Motsepe League and playing a PSL team takes a lot of character and we are proud of the boys.
“Our concentration now moves to the league so whatever happened here today is behind us. We have had a rough three weeks, playing the big guns, but the players gave it their all,” he said.
Baroka FC’s head coach, Dylan Kerr says the team have to do better and that their focus now moves to the premiership.
“We are left with eight league games and they are tough games. If we continue to make the same mistakes as we did today, we will be punished and we will lose our place in the PSL,” he said.
