SuperSport stun Sundowns in round two of Tshwane derby

If you watched the first edition of the Tshwane derby last week Sunday and cared to watch the capital city rivals on Friday night, you would attest that it was a tale of two townships.

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Mamelodi Sundowns, the pride of the Pretoria-east township, won the first Tshwane derby of the season, but SuperSport United were the talk of the town on Friday night as they brought the defending DStv Premiership champions to their knees, beating them 2-1 in front of a decent crowd at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.

It took youngster Thapelo Maseko just under 10 minutes to find the opener for Matsatsatsantsa A Pitori and Iqraam Rayners, who had lots of joy down the right flank, played the assist for Maseko.

The 19-year-old Maseko ran the show for SuperSport and he got a standing ovation when he was recalled in the 67th minute.

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Sundowns then looked for the response and Thapelo Morena was the one who instigated a lot of moves forward for the visitors and in the 17th minute, Morena played in a pin-point cross to Peter Shalulile and Namibian forward wasted no time, hitting the ball on the volley but goalkeeper George Chigova was up to the task.

The SuperSport goalie was called into action three minutes later and he came out tops once more. This time it was Abubeker Nasir who was denied by Chigova. Nasir attempted a long range effort, similar to that of Neo Maema and both were easily dealt with by Chigova.

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Matsatsantsa A Pitori then went on to increase their lead on the verge of half-time. Rayners was once again the provider of the assist. This time he played a cross to Bradley Grobler, who made no mistake and headed past his former teammate and now Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.

Nasir got the consolation goal in optional time but it was much too late as the night belonged to the hosts.

It was not meant to be for Sundowns as they succumbed to their first Tshwane derby loss in nine contests since 2019.

Sundowns will look to redeem themselves next Wednesday against Chippa United while SuperSport are away to Maritzburg United two days later.