Despite a fast and furious second half, AS Vita and TP Mazembe were made to share the spoils in entertaining DR Congo derby at Stade des Martyrs on Sunday afternoon.
An ordinary opening half made way for a frantic second, which seemed to go by in a flash as the Congolese rivals played up to the always highly-anticipated clash between the country’s premier clubs in Kinshasa.
The game started brightly for Mazembe, who had a penalty shot turned down in the fifth minute despite Kalaba complaining that he had been hacked down by Djuma Shabani’s clumsy tackle inside the box.
Vita woke up and proceeded to dominate the next quarter and put their rivals on the back foot for most of the half.
Mazembe came closest when Muleka headed Ochaya’s free-kick narrowly over the crossbar after finding himself in acres of space inside the box.
A minute later, Nelson Lukong was forced into his first real save of the match when Kalaba had a go from a long way out, thanks to Luzolo recovery and counter-attack from the middle of the park.
But the half fizzled out somewhat as the teams went into the break after a reasonable 45 which saw little in the way of chances at either end.
The second half started with a bang and was far quicker in tempo, up and down the pitch.
The Black Dolphins used neat touches and short, sharp passes to work their way past Mazembe ‘shelpless defence but poor decisions let the army side down.
Gbohouo made a stunning save in the 48th minute to thwart Manzoki from a distance, with the midfielder curling a shot goalwards but instead finding a two-handed diving stop from Gbohouo.
It was going Mazembe’s way and Kalaba took advantage by cutting inside to unleash a thunderous left-footed shot from a distance, rattling the crossbar with an effort worthy of a goal.
Vita replied with a long-range stunner of their own when Ndongo found the underside of the crossbar with his vicious attempt in the 65th minute.
The shot took a nasty deflection en route to goal and wrong-footed Lukong who was relieved to see the ball bounce straight down, but not over the goal-line, and out of danger.
Vita were made to rue missed opportunities nine minutes from the end when second-half replacement Tuisila failed to round-off a superb Dolphins move which started with a burly run by Mikoko down the middle.
Mumbere, however, got his feet caught up and could only chest his foiled shot tamely at a grateful Kikasa, who was alone in the box.
Kikasa was put through on goal shortly afterwards but again could not beat Gbohouo in a one-on-one situation.
In the end, it was a fair reflection on a breath-taking game which brought the crowd to its feet, courtesy of a second-half that was unlucky not to see a goal.
