Peprah hails dizzy Pirates’ fighting spirit

Following a rather shaky start, Orlando Pirates’ superb fighting spirit saw the them fight their way back to a 6-2 victory in their Caf Confederation Cup Group B tie with Royal Leopard at the Mbombela Stadium on Sunday night.

Using Mbombela as a home ground, the eSwatine club definitely felt at home as they put a scare on the Buccaneers with two goals within the first 10 minutes of the game thanks to Mzwandile Mabelesa and Thabiso Mokenkoane.

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But, with the Soweto giants desperate for victory, they immediately shifted from their poor start and responded by putting the home side under pressure which saw Machawe Dlamini scoring an own-goal in the 20^th minute.

Things were starting to look good for Pirates and just after eight minutes from the half an hour mark, they got to level the scores as Bandile Shandu scored his third goal in two matches to make it 2-2, before Kwame Peprah took Pirates into the break in the driver’s seat with the third goal.

Pirates changed gears in the second stanza and aimed for a victory with Leopards losing their momentum from their good start. Skipper Happy Jele went on to add the fourth goal for the Buccaneers, before Kabelo Dlamini made things easier for Bucs with a fifth goal as Leopards failed to make any threats or try to stage a come-back.

With 10 minutes of regular time remaining, substitute Terrence Dzvukamanja went on to score the sixth goal for the Buccaneers, ensuring the club from eSwatini made no come-back.

Ghana born striker Peprah, who scored his fifth goal for the club this campaign, admits that they knew that they were going to find it very hard coming up against Leopard, but he is happy that they managed to fight their way back.

“Coming into this game, we knew it was not going to be easy, but we thank God Almighty for giving us the victory. I thank the whole family, the whole team for the energy in coming back two goals down to end up winning 6-2,” said the striker.

The victory means Pirates remain at the top of group B with six points after three games, while Al-Ittihad and JS Saoura are level on four points sitting on second and third place respectively, with Leopards occupying last place with no points.