Chiefs send message to big guns

THE road to Caf Champions League glory is long, dusty and full of potholes but, step by step, Kaizer Chiefs are proving up to the task of at least matching Orlando Pirates’ heroics from last year.

They swept aside the Mozambican side 4-0 in the first leg of the first round of qualifying and should make it to the final qualifying stage barring disaster in Maputo next weekend.

Goals by Knowledge Musona, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Mathew Rusike and Erick Mathoho secured the win.

Much tougher tasks lie ahead but it was important that the Glamour Boys dismiss the underdogs and send a strong message to big guns Al Ahly, Esperance and Raja Casablanca.

Zimbabwean Musona switched flanks when it suited him and caused mayhem in the Muculmana defence. His 15thminute bundled effort got Chiefs

He was a wheelbarrow when Musona needed a motorbike to weave through

off to a good start.

A teasing Reneilwe Letsholonyane chip drew goalkeeper Milagre off his line. Tefu Mashamaite beat him to the ball, leaving Musona with the job of getting anything onto it to force it in.

For the second goal the visitors didn’t know which player to man mark, such was the wizardry of Chiefs’ passing: Letsholonyane to Willard Katsande to Bernard Parker to Tsepo Masilela, who crossed to find Tshabalala.

Muculmana were as much spectators watching the move as the 20 000 people who rose to their feet and applauded, not only for the sideways scissorkick finish but the majestic build-up too.

Amakhosi had lost captain Itumeleng Khune, who got injured in the warm-up and was replaced by Reyaad Pieterse, but his absence was barely noticeable, such was the bluntness off Muculmana’s attack.

They made Pieterse work only a few times — once from a badly defended corner and when winger Nando tried his luck from 25m.

Chiefs could have been 3-0 up by half time but a Musona “goal” was disallowed as the referee judged he had handled.

If there was any criticism it would have been of Kingston Nkhatha’s inconsistency. He was a wheelbarrow when Musona needed a motorbike to weave through the traffic.

Nkhatha was replaced by Rusike in the second half, who sliced past two defenders before firing low and hard into the net.

Mathoho killed off the tie when he nodded in a curled Tshabalala cross.