Letlhaku at the double as Sundowns turn the tables on City

Rising youngster Kutlwano Letlhaku scored a brace as Mamelodi Sundowns recorded a 2-0 win over Polokwane City in a Betway Premiership match at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday night.

It was Letlhaku’s third goal for the Brazilians senior team in all competitions, after he opened his account in the 5-0 win over Golden Arrows in the Carling Knockout last 16 last month.

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The 18-year-old striker grabbed all the headlines on a night where Sundowns were not at their best, but did enough to bag all three points.

Sundowns’ second-placnot under threat, no matter what happened in the other league match on Wednesday between Stellenbosch FC and TS Galaxy.

However, the Tshwane giants knew they couldn’t afford to drop any more points to keep up with log leaders Orlando Pirates. Masandawana are on 18 points, three behind the Buccaneers, who beat Richards Bay on Tuesday. 

As expected, Manqoba Mngqithi stuck to his rotation policy and made wholesale changes for the grudge match against Rise and Shine. City had beaten Sundowns 1-0 in their only league defeat of the season on October 27.

Ronwen Williams and Peter Shalulile were the only survivors from the starting XI against Kaizer Chiefs in last Saturday’s Carling Knockout 4-0 win.

That explained their lack of cohesion in the first half despite going to break with a slender 1-0 lead, thanks to Letlhaku’s well-taken goal after 27 minutes.

Letlhaku gave the defending champions the lead with a wonderful curled effort into the bottom right corner, but City goalkeeper Manuel Sapunga should have done better.

Mngqithi has made it no secret that he wants his team to play high octane football with a lot of box entries and that was not the case in the opening 45 minutes.

Sundowns were better in the second stanza and there was some urgency about their play. It came as no surprise when Letlhaku tapped in home for his brace to put Masandawana 2-0 up in the 68^th minute from an Arthur Sales assist.

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Mngqithi and his charges will now turn their attention to Sunday’s Carling Knockout semifinal clash with Marumo Gallants. Stellies and Galaxy played to a 1-1 draw in the night’s only other match.