Amakhosi were beaten 2-1 by Zimamoto in the second leg of the preliminary round tie at Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar.
They won 5-2 on aggregate, but that is unlikely to ease the pressure on head coach Giovanni Solinas.
The Soweto giants made some changes to their team following their 2-1 defeat to Golden Arrows over the weekend, bringing in the likes of Virgil Vries, Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya, Hendrik Ekstein, Siphelele Ntshangase and Ryan Moon, who made his mark in the victory which sends them into the first round of the competition.
After conceding two penalties in that defeat to Arrows, Amakhosi gave away another penalty and found themselves a goal down before half-time. The spot-kick was converted by Yussuf Ramadhan Mtuba, as the hosts gave themselves some hope of a comeback. It, however, did not take long in the second half before Amakhosi were on level terms. Lebogang Manyama bagged his first official goal for Chiefs five minutes into the second stanza after he was set up by the experienced Bernard Parker. Chiefs thought they had a second goal three minutes later when Moon found the back of the net, but the effort was disallowed for an infringment in the box. In the final 20 minutes of the game, Chiefs gave away another penalty and it was converted by Mtuba.
Chiefs XI: Vries, Cardoso, Mathoho, Hadebe, Ntiya-Ntiya, Ntshangase, Katsande, Ekstein, Parker, Manyama, Moon.
Subs: Bvuma, Ngezana, Maluleka, Zulu, Mahlasela, Zuma, Castro.
