Sundowns hammer AmaZulu to reach Carling Cup final

Man of the Match Cassius Mailula might have opened the scoring to give Mamelodi Sundowns the lead against AmaZulu, but it was the second-half brilliance of Bradley Ralani that made sure that Downs’ place in the final is guaranteed.

Sundowns won the first of a three-match extravaganza in the Carling Black Label Cup, beating Usuthu 3-0 at the FNB Stadium.

Apart from Mailula’s goal, there was not much action to write home about in the opening stanza. 

The scene was set alight in the second half when Aubrey Modida, in the 62nd minute, stood a freekick but his effort did not trouble Veli Mothwa, whose blushes were spared early on in the start of the second stanza when he lost his footing and almost saw a back-pass going into the back of his net. However, he recovered on time to keep the ball out of the net.

Ralani was brought on in the place of Mailula, and the former Cape Town City attacker did not take long to impose his brilliance. He played a well-threaded pass to find Gaston Sirino on his bike, and them Sirino laid it on to Haashim Domingo, who did the easy job of slotting past Mothwa.

Not too long after, Ralani was at his brilliance again. This time around, it was Domingo who played he square-ball, but it looked to far off reach of Ralani. However, he did not give up the chase as he retrieved the ball. He was allowed to turn and took a sublime shot, curling the ball around the lanky Mothwa.

Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena introduced Rivaldo Coetzee who had been out on a long term injury as he came on for Andile Jali for the final 20 minutes.. Downs also gave Bongolwethu Siyasi his top flight debut after he was promoted from the DStv Diski Challenge team.