SuperSport and Pirates set for humdinger

Orlando Pirates travel to Pretoria for a meeting with SuperSport United in a mouthwatering DStv Premiership match at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Wednesday.

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The Buccaneers are undoubtedly high on confidence following a streak of good results heading into the this match with the last time the Soweto outfit lost a game dating back to early in February, when they were edged 2-0 by Golden Arrows in a league clash.

From then on, they have managed to knock out Uthongathi FC in the Nedbank Cup, beat Cape Town City 2-0 in a league match, before registering a 4-0 aggregate win against Botswana’s Jwaneng Galaxy to advance to the Caf Confederation Cup group stages.

Pirates will be keen to continue with their form against Matsatsantsa, who sit in second place on the league standings with 32 points after 17 matches, while Pirates are in fifth place having collected 28 points from the same number of matches.

Despite injury woes at Bucs, head Josef Zinnbauer should be pleased with the turn out of results recently as they go up against SuperSport. Bucs will also welcome back striker Tshegofatso Mabasa who has been out for weeks now due to an injury, while Deon Hotto and Thembinkosi Lorch both missed the previous match against Jwaneng.

“We have information about Mabasa, he will be available for us, I’m happy about this. Lorch and Hotto will come back very soon. But we will see what happens in the next two days (leading up to the United match), we have a very good medical team. They work good with the players,” said the Bucs German coach.

Meanwhile, Matsatsantsa will head into this game with their minds set on closing the gap at the top with their crosstown rivals Mamelodi Sundowns sitting at the top of the log.

SuperSport trail Downs by four points, with the Brazilians on 36 after 16 games.

Tembo, however, knows coming against Bucs will be tough and his charges will have to be on top of their game.

“Another difficult team, difficult game. They are a team that has been doing well and it’s always not going to be easy,” said the SuperSport coach.

In the reverse fixture between SuperSport and Bucs, Pirates won the tie 2-1.

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