In what was a widely-anticipated game, Orlando Pirates claimed a 2-1 victory over Enyimba in the CAF Confederation Cup group stages on Tuesday evening.
Pirates goalkeeper Richard Ofori and Happy Jele missed out for the Bucs due to injury. Elsewhere, Ntsikelelo Nyauza and Siyabonga Mpontshane were recalled back to the starting lineup by Zinnbauer.
The South African outfit mostly dominated the game and were deserved winners after 90 minutes.
The Bucs took time to impose themselves in the game but they never looked back after they did.
Orlando Pirates were proving too much to handle for the Nigerian side early on. They were fully on the offensive and Linda Mntambo came close to opening the scoring just at the quarter-hour mark. However, the midfielder saw his effort go well over the bar.
To buttress Pirates’ dominance in the early stages, they had over 70% of possession as at the 25-minute mark. At that time, they already had five shots with two of them being on target. Enyimba had not troubled their opponent’s goal at that point in the match.
The goal seemed inevitable and Pirates soon took the lead. Hotto gave his side the lead in the 27th minute in style. The forward grabbed the opening goal of the game with a back-heel from close range after he was played through by Mntambo. Enyimba could only blame themselves after a poor clearance by goalkeeper John Noble.
Prior to the match, Oladapo did say his side had all motivation to take all three points and looked to back his statement on the pitch. Against the run of play, the Nigerian side awarded a penalty on the stroke of half time and Oladapo scored the resulting spot-kick to level matters going into the break.
Enyimba began the second half much better but it soon became the same familiar story from the first half. Pirates soon dominated proceedings and it was only a matter of time before they restored their lead.
The Bucs had a chance to go ahead in the 77th minute after they were awarded a penalty of their own, Gabadinho Mhango was fouled inside the area but Tshegofatso Mabasa, who came on in the 58th minute, blew his shot over the bar.
Mabasa soon atoned for his miss as he rose highest to score a header that proved to be the winning goal two minutes from time. With the victory, the Soweto giants are now top of Group A and the result against Enyimba could prove to be a big one in the grand scheme of things.