Cape Town City gave head coach Benni McCarthy something to smile about as they reached the MTN8 final for the second successive season.
The Mother City-based outfit travelled to Tshwane looking to defend their slender one goal advantage in the first leg.
However, Toni Silva would strike early in the first half to cancel out City’s advantage and the clash would subsequently be decided on penalties as neither side were able to find a winner in regular time.
City keeper Peter Leeuwenburg would come out the hero as he denied both Silva and Anthony Laffor from the spot.
“It was a tough one, I think the boys gave it their all,” a delighted City coach told SuperSport TV after the game.
“We were up against a resilient and strong Sundowns team. They probably had the better chances to kill it off, but when we went 1-0 down I said to the boys 'we have nothing to lose, we keep on playing, we’ve been in these situations and we can overturn it'," McCarthy recalled.
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“We were just unfortunate not to get back into it, a tremendous run by Craig Martin and a tremendous save from Denis to prevent us from going 1-1. Then it’s a completely different game, justice in the end,” he added.
City have subsequently set up a repeat of the 2017/18 MTN8 final where they lost to SuperSport United on penalties.
“Penalty shootouts are a lottery, from last season I know the headache of losing in the final. So, I feel for Pitso and his boys. They did enough to go through but unfortunately it was not meant to be," he expressed.
Nonetheless, McCarthy is refusing to get too ahead of himself as City head into the international break.
“Now it’s the repeat of last year’s final. We’ve got an uphill battle, I have to give them a well-deserved rest and we focus on the next one against Kaizer Chiefs. Now we keep the final out of our minds and focus on our next league game against Chiefs,” he concluded.
