Celtic march into TKO semis with win over Platinum Stars

In all honesty, this was not an exciting football match but Bloemfontein Celtic coach Veselin Jelusic will not be bothered too much as his side came from a goal down to claim their third successive win in all competitions and ensured a place in the Telkom Knockout semi-finals.

For Stars coach Roger De Sa, this is a missed opportunity as they failed to protect their early lead by allowing Celtic to score two unanswered goals in the second half and their name will not be in the draw on Sunday after the clash between Chippa United and Kaizer Chiefs.

The match was played under the scotching head in Rustenburg and by the time the water arrived in the 24th minute, neither side had created clear scoring chances as they struggled to move into second gear in front of a small crowd at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg.

The two coaches took the opportunity to issue instructions and it was Celtic who responded first with attacker Jacky Motshegwa’s close range shot parried away for a corner by Stars goalkeeper Dino Visser.

Stars opened the scoring on the half hour mark when alert striker Bonginkosi Ntuli sneaked past the napping Celtic defence and their goalkeeper Tignyemb to pounce home a long and delightful goal kick by Visser.

Celtic should have easily defended Visser’s long ball in their box but defenders and Tignyemb completely forgot the basics of defending as they failed to pick up unmarked Ntuli who reacted quickly to punish them.

Celtic went into this match with confidence after they defeated SuperSport United in the previous round last week and the Maritzburg in the league this week and Stars saw their two match unbeaten run brought to an end.

Ten minutes after restart, Celtic midfielder Lucky Baloyi misplaced his back on the path of Ntuli, who was clearly on-side, but he failed to register his brace as goalkeeper Tignyemb produced a wonderful save to parry his shot to safety.

Lantshene Phalane equalised for the visitors with a well struck free-kick from the edge of the penalty box when he curled his low shot around the Stars defensive wall after Siyabonga Zulu was judged to have hacked Tshepo Rikhotso three minutes before the hour mark.

Celtic completed their comeback in stunning style nine minutes from time when substitute attacker Tshegofatsho Mabaso rounded off a brilliant team attacking move to put matters beyond doubt and ensure a semi-final place.