Harare — A BRAVE CAPS United crashed out of the Confederation Cup, their journey ending in an agonising fashion when they fell to ENPPI in a lively first round, second leg encounter at Petrosport Stadium here last night.

Lloyd Chitembwe's men put on a battling show, far much better than their sterile first leg performance, and deserved more out of this tie than coming out with defeat.

But their hearts were broken - just 13 minutes from time - when Oscar Machapa gifted the home side the goal that made all the difference in a match in which CAPS United deserved, at least, a draw.

The hosts had found the opener in the 25th minute when striker Abdel Mohamed was also allowed space to plant his header past big goalkeeper Edmore Sibanda.

CAPS United, however, roared back into the game with the best goal of the night - a powerful half-volley struck on the turn by skipper Limited Chikafa in the 69th minute.

That should have been enough to give CAPS United the ticket into the next round and was due reward for their good performance in which they were full of life.

At that point, with just 21 minutes to go, they had their destiny in their hands because their away goal meant a fortune and would have taken them through if the scoreline had remained like that.

What really left the visitors heartbroken was that unlike in the first leg at Rufaro three weeks ago, CAPS United took the game to ENPPI and created a host of chances that should have sent the Egyptians reeling out of the tournament.

But, as has been the case since the season opened, scoring has not been their strongest point and they were left to pay heavily for that at the end of a good contest.

Makepekepe could not convert most of the chances that came their way with Tendai Gwata, Method Mwanjali, Tafadzwa Rusike, Clive Mwale and Machapa all being guilty of missing close opportunities.

It was the hosts who, however, did much of the early probing and forced CAPS United to survive more on their luck as ENPPI were three times denied by the upright in the opening 15 minutes of the game.

Just a minute into the game, Fatah Ahmadel saw his angled shot crash against the upright and roll out of corner after the ENPPI winger had taken advantage of a defensive mix-up between Nyasha Mukumbi and Mwanjali.

The North Africans came charging again three minutes with Abdel Mohamed being denied by the upright again after ghosting in from the blind side to connect a cross from the right from Ahmadel.

CAPS United also had the upright to thank in the 10th minute when Adel Mohamed crashed his low shot against the post with Sibanda a beaten man.

By the time CAPS United had their first attempt on the ENPPI goal in the 12th minute, the hosts had forced four corners and had also seen big goalkeeper Sibanda use his feet to scramble away another glancing header from Ahmad Mohamed.

CAPS United were living dangerously but, to their credit, Chitembwe's men were absorbing everything that ENPPI were throwing at them and seemed to be on course to frustrate the hosts and silence the home fans, the majority in a small crowd of about 3 000.

In fact, CAPS United's first real clear opportunity arrived in the 17th minute, Mushekwi breaking loose on the left before cutting back a low pass to an unmarked Gwata in the box.

With the CAPS United bench up in anticipation of a goal, as Gwata only needed to place the ball beyond a drawn-out Soliman Mahdy in goal for the hosts, the former Dynamos man totally miscued his effort and ENPPI heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Chances do not come that easily in an international game and Gwata was hauled off for Rusike in the 25th minute.

He will, on reflection, probably realise that his miss was the turning point of a game where fortune appeared to be smiling on his side.

After surviving the Gwata scare and another miss by Mwanjali in the 22nd minute, ENPPI came charging again and finally found the target when Abdel Mohamed headed home.

The introduction of Rusike for Gwata, however, added width and bite into the CAPS United attack with the Zimbabwe youth international troubling the ENPPI defenders with his silky dribbling.

Rusike had his first chance to bring CAPS United back into contention in the 39th minute, but this time goalkeeper Mahdy brilliantly turned his effort out for a corner.

But it was in the second period that CAPS United really came out of their shell and soon action was swinging from one end to the other with both Sibanda and Mahdy constantly being called into action.

ENPPI were also having some nervy moments at the back, probably realising that a draw could see them bow out.

That appeared to be the script when Chikafa, breaking his 2009 goal duck, found the CAPS United equaliser with a lovely goal.

A good team should have held on after that, but CAPS United conceded another goal and the manner in which it was scored should have left Chitembwe livid.

Machapa appeared to be making a routine clearance on the left flank only for the gangly midfielder to head the ball onto the path of Mohamed Abd Al Aziz.

And the ENNPI right-back responded by sending a looping cross that found Zaheer Ahmad with too much room to place his header past Sibanda.

Still CAPS United did not throw in the towel and four minutes later Mwanjali's clever pass beat an ill-conceived ENPPI off-side trap and sent Rusike clear on goal.

The young forward, however, chose to be stylish, opting to turn a back-pedalling defender instead of firing on goal and by the time he tried to pull the trigger, skipper Fahim Amr had recovered to just push the ball away from his feet.

Zambia international Mwale, introduced in the 79th minute for Machapa, then wasted CAPS United's last opportunity when he unbelievably blazed over after ghosting in to meet a Mapemba cross.

CAPS United's Confederations Cup story had ended, but the Harare giants have no reason to hold their heads in shame after a refreshing performance that should have been rewarded with more last night.

ENPPI....................................................................................(1) 2 CAPS United...........................................................................(0) 1