Pirates defeat Jwaneng Galaxy in Champions League clash

This time around there was no shock to the system. 

Orlando Pirates successfully negotiated the first leg of this Caf Champions League final preliminary round clash with a 2-0 win over Jwaneng Galaxy at the Botswana National Stadium in Gaborone on Saturday. 

With this hard-fought win against the exciting Galaxy side coached by South African Morena Ramoreboli, Pirates remain on course for the group stages. 

Last season Galaxy dumped Pirates out of this tournament with a 5-4 penalty shootout win in the second leg at Orlando Stadium after they were tied 1-1 on aggregate over the two legs. 

Galaxy stunned Pirates 1-0 at home last year but they lost by the same margin in Soweto, forcing the match into penalties where they prevailed and progressed to the group stages. 

But the Buccaneers learnt their lesson as they put together a strong performance to secure this victory through goals by Tshegofatso Mabasa and Deon Hotto while at the same time keeping a clean sheet. 

Pirates return home with a significant advantage for the second leg on Saturday night at Orlando Stadium, where they enjoy massive support and have proved hard to beat this season.

In their three matches at Orlando Stadium, Pirates beat Cape Town City and SuperSport United in the MTN8 and Madagascan minnows Disciples in the last round of the Champions League qualifiers. 

In this period they scored an impressive nine goals while conceding only once. This is the mammoth task awaiting Galaxy if they want to overturn this tie and progress to the next stage. 

Pirates opened the scoring deep into optional time of the first half when Mabasa beat Galaxy goalkeeper Goitseneone Phoko with a left-footed half volley inside from the box. 

For the opening goal, Galaxy found themselves under pressure and that forced defender Moagi Sechele to miskick his clearance that fell in the path of Mabasa who put the ball beyond the reach of Phoko. 

The two teams kept on going, with nothing much happening in terms of goalmouth action as most of the action was saturated in the middle of the park. 

The next notable moment arrived in the 54th minute when Gilbert Baruti forced a stunning save out of Chaine from outside the box as Galaxy tried to get back in the game. 

Hotto then secured the vital three away points for Pirates when he unleashed a powerful close-range piledriver to beat Phoko after he was set-up by Maswanganyi from the left flank.