NORMAN Mapeza's FC Platinum are through to the next round of the Caf Confederation Cup after beating visiting Kenyan Sofapaka side 2-1 at Mandava on Saturday.
FC Platinum go through on a 4-2 aggregate score-line after beating the Kenyans by a similar margin in the first led which was played in Nairobi.
A brace by Wisdom Mutasa won the game for the locals on Saturday.
Mutasa's charges will now face Young Africans of Tanzania in the next phase of the competition.
Sofapaka struck first through Fiston Rizak, but failed to hold onto their narrow lead as Mutasa struck twice to send his side through.
Rizak gave Sofapaka the lead after just four minutes when he scored with a low ground shot that caught the Platinum goalkeeper napping.
The goal gave Sofapaka plenty of confidence as they went for more but in the process left their back side badly exposed allowing the hosts to make dangerous inroads into their goal.
And it was always a matter of time before Platinum would get back into the match and the home side succeeded ten minutes after going down through Mutasa's long ranger.
Undeterred, the visitors kept up pressure, winning a corner in 17th minute and three minutes later John Barasa's long range effort went just wide.
But after that, there was some cautious approach by both sides which meant that no more goals could be scored as they went to the break with scores standing at 1-1.
On resumption, it was the home team, cheered on by their supporters, who went on offensive and dangerously exposed Sofapaka backline with long balls.
Hardly ten minutes after resumption, Mutasa latched onto a loose ball to score his second and, despite efforts to come back, the Kenyan side had to be content with the single goal.
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