Highlanders Through to Lucrative Mbada Cup Final

ZVISHAVANE —  Highlanders are through to the finals of the lucrative Mbada Diamonds Cup after beating Harare City 5-3 on penalties in a scintillating semi-final encounter at Mandava Stadium in Zvishavane.

The game ended in a 2-all draw leading to the nail-biting shoot-out.

Thousands of football fans thronged Mandava Stadium for the mouth-watering semi-final and now all eyes are on Sunday’s match between Caps United and How Mine, who are not pushovers in this tournament. How Mine dispatched favourites Dynamos from the competition.

What made the weekend’s semi-finals more interesting is the fact that there are two teams from Bulawayo and two teams from Harare, meaning either the two Harare teams or the two teams from Bulawayo could meet in the final.

Perhaps the scenario could be different, which could see one team from each of the two cities clashing for the title in the $1 million competition.

Munyaradzi Diya is the Highlanders hero after scoring a goal in normal time and saving the last penalty kick by Harare City defender David Kutyauripo. He also scored a penalty that saw Bosso storm into the Mbada Cup final.

Highlanders scored their penalties through Mthulisi Maphosa, Njabulo Ncube, Bruce Kangwa, Njabulo Ncube and Diya.

Harare City James Jamm,Willard Kalongonda, Crispen Dickson all scored before Diya removed his gloves to save Kutyauripo’s effort with open hands bringing wild celebrations to the Bosso fans in the Southern stand of Mandava Stadium.

Harare City took the lead through Silsa Songani who curled in a beauty from a free kick awarded to the visitors in the 5th minute by Hwange-based referee Hardlife Ndazi.

The visitors replied moments later when Bekimpilo Ncube beat goalkeeper Maxwell Nyamupanedengu in the 16th minute.