LIMPOPO – Black Leopards proved too strong for the much-respected Pretoria Callies when they beat them 2-0 at the Thohoyandou Stadium on Saturday, in the Motsepe Foundation Championship League.
The local lads immediately took command of the game in search of an early goal. They applied pressure to the Callies defenders, who continued to make mistakes.
The players who were giving the Callies defence a terrible headache were Donald Makgetlwa and Thabana Mabena. Callies came back in the game towards the end of the first half.
Leopard’s breakthrough came when Kamagelo Ngwane picked up a long-range pass from Farai Augusto in the middle of the pitch.
He beat his opponent and passed the ball to the unmarked Bethuel Muzeu, who beat the Callies’ keeper, Putco Khoza.
The Pretoria outfit was unfortunate when Keagile Malepe’s shot hit the post with the Leopards keeper, Chibwe Mwenya, well beaten.
Both sides frustrated their fans a great deal in the second half by wasting obvious chances.
Things turned against Leopards when their veteran player, Kamogelo Ngwane, had to leave the pitch with an injured knee.
Callies missed another fortune when Nkanyiso Zungu’s volley hit the crossbar and bounced back into play. Realising that their scoring chances were slim.
Callies came back strongly late in the match, but they could not find their way through the rock-solid defence.
The Pretoria boys realised that it would be difficult to find the back of the net if they continued volleying from behind and they started to cool the ball in the middle of the park, but at that stage it was already too late.
Leopards striker, Mwape Musunda scored his team’s second goal.
