León inspires Sundowns to key title race victory over Pirates

Mamelodi Sundowns edged Orlando Pirates 2-1 in a top-of-the-table clash to reduce their lead atop the Betway Premiership table to just three points, with the Tshwane giants also having a game in hand.

Brayan León scored a brace for Sundowns in the first half, while Patrick Maswanganyi netted the consolation goal for Pirates in the second half in a match played at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday night.

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The Buccaneers lead the log table with 38 points from 17 matches, closely followed by the Brazilians with 35 points from 16.

It was billed the El Clasico of South African football by Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou and certainly lived up to its expectations. The game had the flair, the skills and of course the goals and the thousands of fans who descended at the venue were treated to a spectacular show.

Ronwen Williams was the busiest of the goalkeepers in the opening stages of the match and had to make two crucial saves in order to keep his team in the game. The Bafana Bafana number one was first called into action in as early as the sixth minute when Deon Hotto took the first shot in anger of the match, but he did well to use his feet to kick the ball away to safety.

Seven minutes later Williams pulled off a point blank save to deny Yanela Mbuthuma’s header as the hosts continued to ask questions from the Sundowns defence.

Pirates were to be punished by Sundowns for these minutes towards the end of the first half when León scored a brace in a space of four minutes.

The Colombian striker’s first goal in the 37^th minute was a touch of class. Sundowns players moved the ball around before it was given to Nuno Santos and the Portuguese midfielder found León in the box with a defence-splitting pass and he beat Sipho Chaine with a low shot to give Sundowns the lead.

Four minutes later, León completed his brace when he pounced onto an Aubrey Modiba’s perfect cross from the left and slammed the ball home.

Maswanganyi almost pulled one back for Pirates just before the break, but his clever lob went over the crossbar

Pirates came out with guns blazing in the second half and it took them just one minute and few seconds to find their goal. Sundowns thought they had survived a scare when Mbuthuma hit the upright from the restart, but after failing to clear the danger, the ball landed onto the path of Maswanganyi who unleashed a powerful shot and the ball deflected off Teboho Mokoena and into the bottom corner.

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The Buccaneers tried hard to push for the equaliser, but the Brazilians’ defence stood strong to take the maximum points away from home.