Polokwane City relegated, Sundowns continue fight until the last day

The defending champions dominated the game from start to finish trying to find as many goals as they could as leaders Kaizer Chiefs also won their match against Chippa United to set-up an exciting finale to the season on Saturday.

Sundowns opened the scoring in the 39^th minute through defender Anele Ngcongca who scored his first goal in Masandawana colours. The goal came from a Gaston Sirino corner kick that found Ricardo Nascimento in the box who was caught off guard and the most he could do was to react with a knee to the ball. For Downs, it fortunately landed on the alley of Ngcongca who was on high alert to slot past George Chigova.

The second goal was a result of beautiful combination play between Sirino and Themba Zwane, with Sirino being the provider. As soon as Sirino’s pass got to Zwane’s feet, the player affectionately known as “Mshishi” surged towards Chigova’s goal, dropped a shoulder and beat all his markers to net his 11^th league goal of the season.

Substitute Keletso Makgalwa scored the final goal in stoppage-time to reduce the goal difference between Downs and Chiefs to three goals.

For Clinton Larsen’s men, they will ply their trade in the GaldAfrica Championship next season unless some miracle happens in their next game against Bidvest Wits this coming Saturday. City would need to beat The Students by a resounding 8-0 and hope that Baroka FC, who are three points above them, lose against Amakhosi. Another scenario that would come to the aid of City would be if the league were to dock points from Baroka – a very unlikely scenario.

Downs are set to play their final game against a Black Leopards side that beat Bidvest Wits 1-0 in their bid to protect their top-flight status.

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