BY HENRY MHARA
CRANEBORNE . . . . . . . . . . . (0) 2
HARARE CITY . . . . . . . . . . . .. (1)1
CRANEBORNE Bullets coach Nesbert Saruchera has declared his desire to win the Chibuku Super Cup tournament after engineering a come-from-behind victory over Harare City in a quarterfinal clash that stretched to extra time at Baobab Stadium in Mhondoro-Ngezi yesterday.
Second half substitute Everson Feremba struck twice, both headers, including a 115th minute winner as the surprise package of the tournament marched into the semi-finals.
Jerry Chipangura had given Harare City an ideal start to the match with a 4th minute opener, but the army side roared back in the second half.
Feremba met Blessing Mushangwe’s cross with a flashing header to level matters for his side on the 55th minute, five minutes after coming on. Regulation time could not separate the two sides and extra time was inevitable.
Craneborne was far the better side in the second half and they carried that momentum into extra time.
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With five minutes remaining on the clock, Feremba again rose high inside the box to head home a cross from the right to turn the match on its head.
Saruchera was thrilled with how his team managed to turn the game and declared that they had the pedigree to win the cup.
“We are very excited as Cranborne Bullets that we are through to the semifinals,” Saruchera said.
“As you know, we are coming from Division One and this is a good way of people getting to know us and probably start counting us as well.”
The army side has punched above its weight so far in the competition after finishing top of Group 2 ahead of the fancied Black Rhinos.
Other semi-finalists will surely have to start taking notice.
“We have a very good youthful team with the blend of experienced players, so we are dangerous. We want to go all the way to the finals and I am confident we can do it.”
Harare City coach Lloyd Chitembwe conceded defeat. He felt his side did not come to the party.
“I thought it was a decent game, but it was always going to be difficult considering that there were so many things that went against us — injuries. We had Marshal (Machazane) and Bobo (Hastings Chapusha) who went out,” Chitembwe said.
“When you lose two key players it is difficult to come back. All the same, I thought there were a lot of things that we did not do well. Usually, we are a team that depends on dominance of matches, but we didn’t do much of that.
“I thought it was all down to that we couldn’t find our range in terms of passing, we committed a number of technical mistakes and it made it difficult for us.”
City’s best chance to score a second one fell to Zvikomborero Bizeki, who found himself unmarked inside the box, but could not score.
Craneborne had a genuine penalty call on the 96th minute when Blessing Gurupira was hacked down from behind by Chapusha inside the box, but the referee ignored their appeals.
Harare City: P Chigumba (K Shangiwa, 90′), H Chapusha (W Muvirimi, 114′), M Machazane (E Ziocha, 50′) Z Bizeki, K Kapikinyu, M Muchenje, C Rupiya, W Manondo, I Zambezi, E Mandiranga, J Chipangura (K Musharu, 103′)
Craneborne Bullets: T Makoni, T Sibanda, M Mushangwe, B Gurupira (D Mbewe, 106′), L Zvasiya, C Charakupa, W Kapinda, M Namakhona, K Chiripawako (M Mudzuka, 71′), T Chibunyu, M Whata (T Meki, 71′)
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