BALAMA Mapinduzi and Bernard Morison goals helped Young Africans to beat Lipuli and snatch maximum points at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
Yanga scored both goals in the first half while Lipuli who looked a better side in the second half scored their consolation goal through David Mwasa’s well taken freekick.
Following the victory, Yanga are now placed third with 34 points after their closest challengers Namungo drew at home with Alliance FC.
Azam were not far from winning until Jumanne Elfadhili’s stoppage time equalizer forced them to share spoils with Tanzania Prisons at Uhuru Stadium on Wednesday.
Elfadhili cancelled Obrey Chirwa’s goal he netted in the first half after heading home Cleofas Mkandala’s corner kick.
His powerful header was too strong to Azam FC goalkeeper, Razak Abalora, despite making efforts to stop it. The last-minute goal frustrated Azam players and some of them thought the ball didn’t cross the line.
Azam opened their goal account in the 44th minute through Chirwa who jumped unchallenged to nod the ball home past Prisons goalkeeper Jeremia Kisubi.
A minute later the teams went for the breather with Azam leading 1-0. Azam could have scored more than one goal in the first half as most of the chances they created were wasted or cleared by Tanzania Prisons defenders.
Chirwa, the scorer of the opener and Richard Djodi were more wasteful at the period. Prison made changes in the 36 th and 39th minutes by introducing Hezekia Mwashilingi and Samson Mbangula for Ismail Aziz and Fred Chudu respectively.
Prisons who played a defensive game failed to create effective raids to their opponents’ goals and that made them fail to have even a single shot on target at the end of the first half, thus giving a temporary holiday to Azam goalkeeper Razak Abalora.
Zimbabwean import Never Tigere came in for Frank Domayo in the 6 0th minute and a few minutes later Jumanne Elfadhili was denied an equalizer after his shot near the edge was saved by Abalora.
The results leave Azam FC at the second position with 38 points from their 19-game outings. They are 12 points behind the league leaders Simba SC who on Tuesday fetched 50 points after a 2-1 win over Tanzania Polisi.
At Majaliwa stadium in Ruangwa Alliance FC forced a 1-1 draw with hosts Namungo who now parade 32 points after the yesterday’s home draw.
At Nangwanda Sijaona stadium in Mtwara, hosts Ndanda recorded their second victory at home after thrashing Mbao 3-0 to intensify their race to shrug off relegation threat.
After the victory, Ndanda have moved up to 18th position with 15 points. But things were not well for Mbeya City who yesterday lost 1-0 to KMC.
