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‘PUPU’ FLIES MAGICAL ‘BIRDS’ TO CAF CONFED GROUP STAGES

16/04/2017 09:57:00 BY ASHMOND NZIMA

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LOBAMBA – Historic, magical and unprecedented!

The record-breaking Mbabane Swallows can easily nail jelly to the wall. They looked dead and buried just after the half-hour mark as they trailed 3-0 on aggregate at home, but scored two goals in five minutes to celebrate a historic qualification to the group stages of Africa’s second biggest club competition - CAF Confederations Cup; winning 4-3 on aggregate.
Classy winger Banele ‘Pupu’ Sikhondze had the throngs of fervent spectators eating out of the palms of his hands with a decisive and magical goal deep into stoppage time to earn his side a 4-2 win in the play-offs decider at Somhlolo National Stadium yesterday. It was a goal worth winning any game as the ‘Beautiful Birds’ flew to the main stage of the competition, which comes with a carrot of about E3.4 million.

The thousands of supporters, whose celebrations threatened to ‘wake up’ the dead at the nearby mountains, painted a picture of a relieved nation following the ridiculous accusation against talisman, Sabelo ‘Sikhali’ Ndzinisa. The latter, who missed yesterday’s decider, was suspended after he was adjudged to have smashed a heavily-guarded dressing room door away in Congo in the first leg 0-1 controversial defeat in Congo-Brazzaville last week.
Come April 26, the capital city giants will be in the draw for the 16 best teams that will play in the group stages of four teams each. After a major set-back, conceding two away goals through Seda Heritier and Makiesse Junior inside the opening 30 minutes, the red and white glamour giants responded through skipper Tony ‘TT’ Tsabedze full-back Sanele Mkhweli, grafter Papy Kabamba and ‘Pupu.

Defeat would have been like a stab in the heart after missing countless opportunities, especially through the lanky Sandile Hlatshwako upfront.
The visitors had caused a scare at first as they were compact and moved like greased lightning when going forward. They drew first blood as early as the 14th minute as a deceptive Thcilimbou header evaded Mandla Palma at the heart of defence, with an unmarked Seda firing home. The visitors were two goals up 17 minutes later as Makiesse steered the ball home with aplomb just inside the box following a quick inter-change of passes with the troublesome Kalengo.
Just when everyone thought the game was slipping from Swallows’ hands, ‘TT’ reduced the deficit with an immaculate strike from outside the box that left the visiting goalkeeper stuttering on the goal line. Swallows trailed 1-2 on the day and 1-3 on aggregate at the break.

Thabo ‘Koki’ Vilakati’s troops played with renewed vigour after the re-start, closing down the spaces in midfield. In the 50th minute, Mkhweli jumped highest to restore parity from a Wonder’ Samba Jive’ Nhleko corner-kick. The home side had set-up camp at the opposition’s last third, with Hlatshwako squandering a wonderful opportunity after he was set up by Papy just after the hour-mark. The resilience finally paid dividends in the 88th minute as Papy headed home a ‘Pupu’ corner. With a 3-2 win still not enough to go through as Swallows were going to be eliminated on away goals, ‘Pupu’ pulled a rabbit out of the hat when he connected a Sandile pass and looped the ball over the advancing AC Leopards goalkeeper to complete the comeback.