Pirates eyeing victory over City to close gap on Sundowns

Second-placed Orlando Pirates will be looking to close the gap between them and the Betway Premiership log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns when they face Cape Town City at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday (kick-off is 3.30pm).

The Buccaneers were supposed to play Golden Arrows on Wednesday night, but that game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at the Mpumalanga Stadium in Hammarsdale.

READ MORE: Golden Arrows vs Orlando Pirates game abandoned

Sundowns were in action in Bloemfontein on the same night where they registered a come-from-behind 3-1 victory over Marumo Gallants to increase their lead over the Buccaneers to 12 points.

As a result, Pirates will go into this weekend’s clash against the Citizens knowing that nothing but a victory will be needed to close the gap between themselves and the Brazilians.

But they’re coming up against a side that has already gotten the better of them in Cape Town last month in a tightly contested game that was decided by a solitary goal from Darwin Gonzalez.

The victory was supposed to be a turning point for City, who had started the 2024/25 season on a low note leading to coach Eric Tinkler’s sacking, but the Citizens have won just one of their last seven matches since then, suffering five defeats and registering one draw in the process.

Following their 2-0 loss at home against Chippa United this past Tuesday, City coach Muhsin Ertugral admitted that his side is low on confidence and as a result, they are missing easy scoring chances.

“These are the times that coaching is the most difficult. I think in the first 20 minutes the game could have been over,” said Ertugral after the match at Athlone Stadium.

“But the game is 90 minutes long, unfortunately. Yes, this is our problem. We don’t score and then the pressure mounts. When we don’t score, you can see the dropping of heads, and then one mistake, and you get punished.”

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“This has happened now a couple of times, and you can see mentally how our shoulders drop. We tried to find solutions with our substitutions, but this didn’t happen,” added Ertugral.

Meanwhile, Pirates will be without Kabelo Dlamini when they take on City. The midfielder is serving a one-match suspension after collecting his fourth yellow card of the season during the Nedbank Cup last-16 clash win over Baroka FC last Saturday.