Lepasa, Maswanganyi shine as Pirates beat Comoros minnows Djabal

Zakhele Lepasa’s purple patch continued as he scored his second brace of the season when Orlando Pirates beat Djabal Club 3-0 to proceed to the second round of the preliminary stage of the Caf Champions League at Orlando Stadium on Friday.     

Pirates convincingly won this two-legged tie 4-0 on aggregate as they made light work of this minnows from Comoros after they won the away leg 1-0 last weekend. 

Lepasa scored a goal in each half while new signing Patrick Maswanganyi also scored his first goal for the Buccaneers in the second stanza of the one-sided affair.     

 Lepasa has scored eight goals in six matches in all competitions this season. 

The Bafana Bafana target man also scored a brace against Royal AM in the DStv Premiership while he netted a hat-trick against Sekhukhune United in the MTN8 quarterfinals.       

Lepasa was on the scoresheet as well when Pirates narrowly beat Djabal away from home a week ago.   

The Sea Robbers found it very challenging to break the Islanders solid defence in the opening half but came right in the final half.     

Djabal came with a plan to sit at the back and frustrated Pirates' attackers for 25 minutes before Lepasa finally broke the deadlock.    

While Djabal defended well, Pirates had some clear-cut chances, but their players fumbled.     

Before Lepasa scored the opener on Friday night, the striker had a chance to score with an open net, but he ballooned his opportunity.     

This was after Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo’s powerful shot hit the crossbar and the ball rebounded to Lepasa.     

Pirates came with a better plan on how to break down Djabal in the second half as Maswanganyi doubled the lead with a well-taken long range shot on 58 minutes.     

Maswanganyi, who has been a great addition to coach Jose Riveiro’s side, set up Lepasa to complete his brace five minutes later.     

In the second round, Pirates will play either Botswana’s Jwaneng Galaxy or Vipers of Uganda.     

Galaxy have one foot into the next round as they won the first leg against Vipers by 2-0, but the Botswana team will have to finish the job when the two sides meet again on Saturday.     

After securing their place in the next round of the continental tournament, Pirates will shift their focus back to the Premiership where they will host Cape Town City at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday (7.30pm).