Classy Sundowns start MDC campaign on a positive note

Mamelodi Sundowns reserves resembled their seniors as they showed class in their opening fixture in the newly expanded MultiChoice Diski Challenge thrashing defending champions Bloemfontein Celtic 3-0 in the Diski Festival at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban On Friday.

The Sundowns juniors were quick on their passes with almost all of their attack resulting into a goal.

However, Celtic weren’t as bad as the score-line reflects, with the Free State based outfit having had a couple of promising attacks, which unfortunately didn’t result into goals.

Downs first goal of the match came through Musawenkosi Mdluli, who hit a powerful strike leaving Celtic keeper Given Machaba with no chance to make a save.

Some sloppy defending in the Celtic halve gifted Downs their second goal as captain Promise Mkhuma made it 2-0.

The Downs captain was becoming a menace for the Celtic back four with his silky touches and it didn’t take him long to make it 3-0 for the Pretoria side.

Celtic didn’t drop their heads with Kamohelo Mohoje and Xolani Mpata making some great combination to try and unlock the Sundowns back four, but their efforts didn’t count for much as the game went into half-time.

The second half saw Downs still continuing to go forward and dominating ball possession.

And the score could have extended in the first 10 minutes of the second stanza, but Machaba was lively in the Celtic goals making some incredible saves to deny Downs their fourth goal of the match.

Celtic got a glorious opportunity to get their first of the match after some beautiful build up started by Mpata, but the midfielder couldn’t finish as his shot hit the crossbar before going out for a goal-kick.

At the end, Downs walked away with maximum points on the day.

Other results:

Stellenbosch 2 Chippa United 1
Orlando Pirates 1 AmaZulu FC 0

Saturday Fixtures

Maritzburg United v SuperSport, King Zwelithini Stadium
Golden Arrows v Kaizer Chiefs, King Zwelithini Stadium
Black Leopards v Cape Town City, Thohoyandou Stadium

Sunday Fixtures

Polokwane City v Bidvest Wits, Peter Mokaba Stadium
Highlands Park v Baroka FC Makhulong Stadium.

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