Richards Bay edge City on penalties to reach Knockout last four

Richards Bay became the first team to the semifinals of the Carling Knockout after they beat Cape Town City 5-4 on penalties at the King Zwelithini Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

It was the second time in a row that the Natal Rich Boys had reached this stage of the competition. Last season they were beaten 3-0 by eventual winners Stellenbosch FC in the semis.  

With both teams coming into this game on the back of defeats, both coaches made a couple of changes to their starting line-ups as they tried to bounce back to winning ways.

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The scorching heat in Umlazi somehow made it difficult for the teams to have a full go at each other and as a result goalscoring opportunities were few and far in between in the first half of the match.

The action was mainly taking place in the middle of the park but it was mainly fouls committed more than anything else.

Siyabonga Dube came close to finding the opening goal just before the half-time break with a powerful shot on the right side of attack, but Darren Keet pulled off a good save to deny him.

The score remained 0-0 at the break.  

The Natal Rich Boys took the game to the Citizens in the opening stages of the second half as they tried to find the winning goal.

But the best opening of the game fell to Amadou Soukouna of City in the 65^th minute when he found himself in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper but Ian Otieno came out of his line to deny him at second attempt.

Otieno did well to deny substitute Kayden Francis 10 minutes later as City continued to ask questions on the Richards Bay defence.

After the 90 minutes of football failed to produce a winner, the game went to extra-time.

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Richards Bay were reduced to 10 men in the last minute of extra-time after a reckless tackle on Fortune Makaringe.

The game had to be decided via the penalty shootout after 120 minutes of football failed to produce a winner and the Natal Rich Boys won the shootout to reach the last four.