Pirates lost to Bolton Wanderers in their first game in Spain and that loss was followed by draws against Pafos FC and Las Palmas.
Relebohile Mofokeng scored the first goal for Orlando Pirates against Granada CF on Saturday. Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Orlando Pirates beat Granada FC 2-0 in a preseason friendly at the Marbella Sports Center on Saturday.
Goals in the second half from Patrick Maswanganyi and Relebohile Mofokeng gave the Buccaneers their first win in their preseason camp in Spain.
Pirates lost to Bolton Wanderers in their first game in Spain and that loss was followed by draws against Pafos FC and Las Palmas.
The Buccaneers were the more enterprising team in the opening phase, and they almost claimed the lead in the 19th minute through Tshepang Moremi, but was denied by Luca Zidane.
Luca, who is the son of the legendary Zinedine Zidane, was called into action again in the 32nd minute, but Boitumelo Radiopane’s tame free header failed to trouble him.
With Pirates throwing many men forward in search of the opener, Mbekezeli Mbokazi found himself in a one-on-one situation with Luca after making a brilliant run into the box, but the young defender rushed his shot and it went wide of goal.
Granada’s best chance of the half fell to Pedro Aleman in the 44th minute when he found himself with a space to shoot, but Sipho Chaine was well-positioned to make a save to make sure that the teams remained deadlocked at 0-0 at the break.
Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou made 10 changes at the start of the second half and only keeping Chaine from the starting line-up.
Granada also made some changes and one of them was goalkeeper Ander Astralaga, who found himself having to make a save 10 minutes into the game to deny Pirates substitute Relebohile Mofokeng.
Chaine was also substituted just after the hour mark with Siyabonga Dladla coming on to replace him.
Substitute Lucas Boye wasted two chances to put Granada in the lead, but his free headers went wide of goal as Pirates once again failed to deal with set pieces.
Boye came close to redeeming himself in the 78th minute, connecting well with the ball from another Granada free kick, but his volley hit the crossbar with Dladla well-beaten.
Granada were to pay for these misses in the 80th minute when Patrick Maswanganyi scored from a rebound.
10 minutes later, Mofokeng put the game beyond Granada’s reach when the netted the second goal, finishing off a great move from Pirates.
