Pirates trounce Aces
Striker, Mabhuti Khanyeza proved why he is still hot property in the domestic league when he calmly converted home to take the teams to interval with a goal.
The Soweto giants, Orlando Pirates, famously known as the Buccaneers, cruised to the quarter-finals of the Telkom Knockout Cup after thrashing Mpumalanga Black Aces by 3-1.
Played before a not so impressive capacity, the writing was on the wall that it would take the home team, Aces the Biblical Moses of Israel’s miracle to hijack the Buccaneers’ ship.
Coming from a loss against Platinum Stars in the MTN 8 Cup and a draw against Tunisian’s Esperance in the Champions League, Pirates had all the ammunition to declare war against Aces and as expected, they drew first blood in the 29th minute through Alex Bacela who headed in after a brilliant cross from the right flank delivered by Happy Jele.
From this goal onwards, Pirates charged forward and hard, playing like mad Pirates of the Caribbean and were almost rewarded from a Dane Klaite free kick, similar to the one that stunned Kaizer Chiefs’ Itumeleng Khune during the MTN 8 semi -finals, but this time, the shot was just an inch away from the target.
In the stroke of half time and out of no where, Aces stole an equaliser that cut like a sharp sword through the hearts of the Pirates’ faithfuls, who had things going their way for over 45 minutes of play.
Striker, Mabhuti Khanyeza proved why he is still hot property in the domestic league when he calmly converted home to take the teams to interval with a goal apiece.
The second stanza was more or less the repeat of the first period, with Pirates keeping possession, but failing to connect in front of goals until in the 85th minute when Bacela again doubled the Buccaneers’ lead.
As if this was not enough of a bitter pill to swallow for coach Clive Barker’s boys, Pirates nabbed a third after Bacela released Oupa Manyisa to cement their victory and booked themselves a place in the last eight of this tourney.
