Temeke under 17 soccer team became the first side to cruise into semifinals of this year’s Copa Coca-Cola championship after edging Unguja Urban West through penalty shootout (4-2) at the Karume Memorial Stadium in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

The morning session quarterfinal tie saw the teams deadlocked at 1-1 at the end of the regulation time to ignite the dramatic shootout.
 The losers were the first to scribe the score sheet when Salum Maulid was on target eleven minutes to time.

As spectators and most of the Unguja players believed their semifinal progression has been successful, Temeke striker Abdul Hassan proved them wrong with a last-gasp equaliser to set up the nerve-jangling penalty shootout.

Temeke scored their penalties through Baraka Ntalukundo, Khalid Mwendakamo, Mohamed Dikougwa and Abdul Hassan while Anwar Kilemile missed.
Unguja players who missed penalties were Abdurrahman Mohamed and Salum Maulid while Alawi Kombo and Salum Shukuru scored.

Temeke now await the third quarterfinal winner between Kinondoni and Mwanza to be played this morning at the same venue.
Mara and Morogoro teams were expected to clash in their quarterfinal tie yesterday evening and the winner would meet the fourth quarterfinal triumphant in a match involving Dodoma and Tanga to be played later this evening.
 The semifinals will be played on Friday ahead of the Sunday’s final.

The tournament kicked off on June 24 as Coca-Cola marked their sixth back-to-back sponsorship of the youth soccer show.