By Fortune Mbele
BULAWAYO CHIEFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
NGEZI PLATINUM STARS . . . . . . . . . . 1
ALL eyes were on Benjani Mwaruwari as he made his coaching debut, taking charge of Ngezi Platinum Stars in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match against Bulawayo Chiefs at Luveve Stadium yesterday.
The former Warriors assistant coach would have been pleased to see his side salvage a point in a match they could have lost.
As a bonus, Mwaruwari was yellow carded for remonstrating with the referee in the 69th minute of the game as his side tried to get back in the game after falling behind in the first half.
They had fallen behind to an Obriel Chirinda penalty in the 35th minute.
In the build up to the spot kick, Ngezi Platinum defender Qadar Amini mistimed a long ball into the box which fell onto the path of Chirinda.
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His first touch was perfect and put him right on goal and Amini hacked him down.
Chirinda dusted himself up to slot home from 12 yards.
Chiefs went into the break in control but the second half was a totally different affair.
Ngezi thought they had found the equaliser in the 74th minute, but Delic Mulimba’s affort was ruled out for offside.
Their efforts were eventually rewarded with a late equaliser in the 87th minute.
“As my first game, it was always going to be difficult playing away from home and we got a point which is very good. On the disallowed goal, I will have to check it, but match officials are just like us if they made a mistake next time we hope it will go in our favour,” Mwaruwari said.
His opposite number, Nilton Terreso said: “I think we did enough in the first half in terms of combinations and moving the ball forward. In the second half we were not as strong. We had to make some changes and I think the team broke down.”
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