Lepasa and Maswanganyi strike again as on-fire Orlando Pirates slay City

Orlando Pirates put in a brilliant performance to add to Cape Town City's woes, Bucs notching a 2-0 DStv Premiership victory at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday night.

Zakhele Lepasa (ninth minute) and man of the match Patrick Maswanganyi (75th) were on the scoresheet for the Buccaneers for the second game running.

The two players also found the back of the net when the Sea Robbers defeated Comoros’ Djabal Club 3-0 in their Caf Champions League preliminary stage match on Friday night at their Soweto home venue.

Lepasa, who has scored nine goals in six matches in all competitions, produced a brace on Friday.

Pirates needed to win against City to close a growing gap between them and early-season leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.

Coming into the clash, Bucs were 11 points behind the defending champions, though Sundowns had played two more games. The victory took Pirates to fourth after four matches, eight points behind the leaders.

The Cape outfit have now gone four matches without a win in all competitions, with three defeats in the league and one in the MTN8 quarterfinals.

Pirates had a fast start with Lepasa finding the back of the net as early as the ninth minute with a beautiful goal.

The on-form striker received a pass from defender Paseka Mako on the edge of the box and eluded his marker, Keanu Cupido, then blasted past Darren Keet.

The Soweto giants had full control of play in the first half, playing some excellent football with some deft touches from Ndabayithethwa Ndlondlo, Relebohile Mofokeng, Maswanganyi and others.

But they couldn’t translate that dominance into more goals before the break.

The Citizens struggled to string passes together and hardly took shots at Pirates’ goalkeeper Sipho Chaine. City managed just two shots in the opening half, with one on target.

Coach Eric Tinkler had last season’s league joint-top scorer Khanyisa Mayo on the bench. Angolan striker Joaquim Paciência started up front alongside Thabiso Kutumela.

The introduction of Mayo, Juan Zapata and Jaedin Rhodes in the second half seemed to give the visitors some oomph to attack Pirates.

However, it was the hosts who doubled their lead with 15 minutes left to play when Maswanganyi finished off a low cross by substitute Deon Hotto.

City's players were not happy with the match referee, Michael Mosemeng, awarding the goal as they were convinced Keet saved the ball before it crossed the line. But the officials saw something different.

Pirates will not have much time to celebrate their victory as they travel to Stellenbosch FC for the first leg of the MTN8 semifinals at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Sunday (3pm).