How Sundowns managed to silence Pirates’ Lepasa and Maswanganyi

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed how his side managed to silence Orlando Pirates duo of Zakhele Lepasa and Patrick Maswanganyi.

Pirates and Sundowns renewed their rivalry on Wednesday in the DStv Premiership at Orlando Stadium. The Tshwane giants continued with their dominance over the Buccaneers winning with narrow a 1-0 scoreline.

Since the start of the 2023/24 PSL campaign, Lepasa and Maswanganyi have been key for the Soweto giants. The duo has been causing all sorts of problems for their opponents in attack.

Lepasa is the club’s top scorer with 10 goals from nine matches in all competitions. As for ‘Tito’, he has scored two goals and provided five assists.

Against Masandawana the two stars had a quiet game and they were subbed off in the second half.

RULANI MOKWENA CREDITS COACHING BLACK POISON FC

According to Mokwena, his experience of coaching Black Poison FC helped him to get some information on two Pirates dangermen.

“The greatest benefit of coaching Black Poison is that I get to be right at the heart of football,” said Mokwena.

“I’ve seen Maswanganyi play, I’ve seen him play, play free and I know what he can do. I’ve seen Zakhele Lepasa in a cup final; Black Poison versus Snekeneke Chillas scoring the goal against Black Poison.

“A lot of people say, ‘this one is obsessed with football, this one has got no social life’. But really the truth is it helps me to have so much information about who are the players coming. What they’re strong at.

RULANI MOKWENA SAYS THERE WERE NO SPECIAL PLANS FOR ZAKHELE LEPASA AND PATRICK MASWANGANYI

Mokwena further revealed that there were no special plans in place to handle Maswanganyi and Lepasa.

“That background information helps a little bit. But no we don’t plan around any single individual but it’s just that we do a lot of work behind the scenes and prepare,” he added.

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