Defending champions Power Dynamos on Saturday cut and thrashed their way to the Barclays Cup semifinals.
This is after beating Kabwe Warriors 1-0 in entertaining contest at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka.
However, the day was almost blighted when a section of spectator stand behind Nkoloma’s western goal area collapsed under nearly 30 fans.
Miraculously, only one person was injured when the steel stand was completely flattened during Zanaco and Lime Hotspurs post-match penalty-shootout in the earlier kickoff of the Barclays Cup quarterfinal doubleheader at Nkoloma.
Meanwhile, Warriors matched Power especially in the first half and almost took the lead against the latter on 10 minutes but Roderick Kabwe’s shot hit the woodwork.
Graven Chitalu was Power’s main culprit and missed at least two sitters in the 34th and 64th before making way for Francis Kanemwa in the 70th minute.
Warriors fizzled after the break thanks mostly after they were reduced to 10 men late in the first half.
This is after Musonda Mweuke received his second booking in the 44th minute with both sides level at 0-0 going into halftime.
The match roared back to life in the final quarter of the second half after Warriors coach Happy Sichikolo brought on veterans January Zyambo and Siloni Jere revived the Railwaymens push of a semifinal place.
However, Jere shot wide when it looked easier to score after he was setup by Zyambo with 10 minutes remaining on the clock.
Meanwhile, Simon Bwalya made no mistake on the opposite end for Power six minutes later to score the winning goal.
Bwalya finished off a rebound after Kelvin Musonda had parried Kennedy Mudenda’s initial shot.
Power head into the October 27 semifinals bracing for a draw against either, Napsa Stars, Zesco United or Zanaco.
Zanaco on the other hand secured their semifinal passage via 10 penalties, two of them alone within the 90 minutes, when they forced a penalty shootout after the match had ended 2-2.
Zanaco eventually won the game 8-7 on post-match penalties over Division One North leaders and promotion favourites Lime.
lets go POWER, lets go.,POWER
limeis a strong team. we await you in the top flight
Power were aided by the sending off the warriors player.Good game for warriors who took Power punch for punch.Premier leagues here we come with Lime Hotspurs