At the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday night, the Orlando Pirates overcame Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1 to successfully defend the Nedbank Cup title. Sundowns began the game by playing very high pressure offensive football. The team took advantage of their opportunities and was even given a penalty in the opening six minutes of play.
Sipho Chaine made an outstanding stop to deny Lucas Ribeiro’s penalty. The game became less intense as both sides became more relaxed and eased into it. Although Sundowns was controlling most of the possession, Pirates were beginning to appear more vibrant. Themba Zwane’s goal for the Brazilians didn’t come too slowly as the second verse got begun. Even though they were behind, the Buccaneers never gave up and managed to win a penalty kick in the 68th minute.
Patrick Maswanganyi made the attempt and scored by sending Ronwen Williams in the wrong direction. The two teams were tied with 20 minutes remaining in regular time, and it was evident that the Soweto squad was still very much in the contest. Both teams tried hard to score the game-winning goal in the last minutes of regulation time, but they were unable to pull even. Pirates were given a freekick in the last seconds of stoppage time.
Teenage Relebohile Mofokeng was placed in on goal by a masterfully executed set piece, and he scored under duress to give them the lead. Sundowns had very little time to change the score after this. Once again, the Orlando Pirates won the Nedbank Cup, and the venue
