Mamelodi Sundowns sealed their place in the CAF Champions League quarter-final after surviving a late onslaught from AS FAR of Morocco to secure a 1-1 draw on Sunday.
Sundowns went ahead after 12 minutes when Peter Shalulile headed home Lucas Ribeiro’s freekick at Loftus Versfeld.
Shalulile positioned himself well on the AS FAR wall, heading the ball down before it bounced into the net, to open the scoring.
Two scary moments for Sundowns
The Namibia striker should have grabbed a second in the 34th minute but his half-volley went straight at the goalkeeper.
After halftime, Iqraam Rayners nearly made it 2-0 with a cleaver chip that was tipped over by the AS FAR goalkeeper while Teboho Mokoena’s freekick just bounced in front of the goal, with no one there to direct it home.
From then on, there were some nervy moments from Sundowns, first Ribeiro almost scoring in his own net in the 67th minute after a poor attempt to clear the ball from a freekick, while Ronwen Williams’ poor clearance also nearly saw the visitors score.
How did AS FAR equalise?
Ten minutes from time, Marcello Allende found substitute Tashreeq Mathews with a delicious ball in the box but the latter failed to control it well while in space and they would pay the price in two minutes.
From a counter attack, El Amine Zouhzouh fired home past the Sundowns players to make it 1-1 in the 82nd minute to set up a nervous end to the game.
Sundowns did not panic, however, opting to slow down the game and run the clock down to secure the draw and claim a place in the quarter-final as the second-best team in Group B with nine points, one behind AS FAR.
