By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GalloImages.
Mamelodi Sundowns have ended log leaders Orlando Pirates home winning run with a 2-1 victory in their Betway Premiership clash at FNB Stadium on Wednesday night.
In a highly-anticipated match, Pirates had a promising start to the encounter, causing all sorts of trouble for the Sundowns’ defense.
Pirates forced two superb saves out of Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams inside the opening quarter hour.
The hosts had another chance in the 36th minute when a ball over the top seemed to put Patrick Maswanganyi in on goal, but Sundowns defender Khulumani Ndamane made an aggressive and risky – but ultimately well executed – tackle to quell the danger.
Sundowns opened the scoring in the 37th minute with Nuno Santo played a great diagonal pass from the left flank to pick out Brayan Leon, who provided a superb finish from a tight angle – finding the back of the net via the inside of the far post.
Leon then made it 2-0 in the 41st minute, running onto another excellent pass – this time from Aubrey Modiba on the left – to stab home at the near post and put the Brazilians in total control of the match heading into halftime.
Pirates struck back early in the second half, with Maswanganyi letting fly from outside the box – his effort took a wicked deflection off a lunging Teboho Mokoena, wrongfooting Williams and bouncing into the back of the net.
The goal arrived mere seconds after Yanela Mbuthuma had got on the end of a low Oswin Appollis cross and rattled the woodwork.
Despite Pirates’ efforts to overturn the score line, Sundowns held on thier lead to claim a 2-1 victory to cut the gap at the top of the league table to three points.
Pirates remain top with 38 points, having played a game more, as Sundowns remain second with 35 points from 16 matches.
Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou said “I think we have [a game of] two halves. One where we wanted to be compact and to play in the transition – I think it worked because we had a lot of the ball and we created the most effective chances.”
“Unfortunately we were not efficient in the first half. On the other hand, Mamelodi Sundowns had a few chances and they were more efficient than us.”
“It’s very hard to come into half-time with 2-0, but I think the boys did well in the second half. We managed to score early. We pushed, we pushed but we didn’t manage to score the second goal.”
The teams will turn their attention to the Nedbank Cup this weekend, with Pirates at home to second-tier Casric Stars, while Sundowns will visit fellow Premiership side TS Galaxy.