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‘BIRDS’ ON CAF CLOUD D

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Mb. Swallows..........................................1
Badenhorst 60th 
Club Desportivo.....................................0

MANZINI - Felix Badenhorst was the hero yesterday as he gave Mbabane Swallows a vital 1-0 home win in their quest to conquer Africa.


He struck in the hour-mark to put Umkhonto KaShaka at the summit of Group D after their second group stage TOTAL CAF Champions League match.


They now have four points as they played a 1-all draw away in Zambia against Zesco United who are also away to Tunisia’s Club du Sahel tomorrow.


Badenhorst also netted his fourth goal of the campaign to stay in the race for the golden boot. Before yesterday, he was two goals behind the leading scorer, who had five goals.
It was a cracker jack that the visitors’ goalkeeper Adilson Cipriano could not stop, especially after it took a little deflection on its way to goal.


The joy, that followed was unimaginable. The song ‘Myekeleni Aphumule’ reverberated on the packed Swallows grandstand.
The visitors showed they were not at this stage by fluke but know their game. They were also quite unfortunate not to at least get a draw after creating some chances of their own, causing nervy moments for the home crowd.


It was in stoppage time that goalkeeper Sandile ‘Nkomishi’ Ginindza brought the house down with an unbelievable one-handed save to deny the Angolans. The crowd had already gone silent after Club Desportivo headed to the near post with Ginindza who had already brilliantly denies then two sure chances from close range, appearing well beaten but somehow stretched one hand backwards to get the ball out before they cleared for a fruitless corner that was followed by the final whistle from the Djibouti referee Souleiman Ahmed Djamal.


Soon after, the atmosphere was unbelievable and Emaswati are starting to believe it is possible to reach the quarter-finals.
Otherwise, the first half saw Swallows dominate the match from the onset but wayward shooting was their weaknesses as they created good openings. Their long-range efforts all went wide with the goalkeeper untested throughout this half. On another day, Swallows would have easily gone to the break leading at least by 1-0 or 2-0. However, that was not to be as they survived a couple of nervy moments, one of which Ginindza dealt with superbly while the other went across goal with no finisher.


Meanwhile, Swallows will now wait to see how their group rivals, Zesco United, of Zambia and Tunisia’s Étoile du Sahel fare this afternoon to know who tops the group after the two games played.

Teams:
Swallows - Sandile, Tony, Sifiso, Sanele, Stanley, Mandla, Wonder, Njabulo, Sandile (Simanga), Banele, Felix.
Club Desportivo - Cipriano, Isaac, Bobo, Alex, Bonifacio (Afonso), Ibukun, Geraldo, Lompala (Anderson), Jose (Pedro), Manuel, Jacques.

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