City smash and grab win, giving Ertugral double against Chiefs and Pirates

Cape Town City manufactured a smash and grab to snatch a 1-0 Betway Premiership win against Orlando Pirates at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night, giving new coach Muhsin Ertugral a double against Soweto giants in his first two games in charge.

After Pirates had almost all the chances, in the 74th minute Darwin Gonzalez’s strike took a major deflection to give City the lead from one of their few opportunities.

Ertugral will take it. The victory saw the 65-year-old German-Turk start his tenure with wins against his two most high-profile clubs he coached in South Africa, after the Citizens dispatched Kaizer Chiefs 1-0 at the same venue on Sunday. Such a boost makes for a promising start as Ertugral, who replaced Eric Tinkler last week, aims to halt a rare slide into the bottom half for regularly competitive City.

The Buccaneers (27 points from 11 matches) were unable to make their game in hand count as they remain three points behind leaders Mamelodi Sundowns (30 from 11).

Pirates edged play in a fast-paced opening half and managed more territory and shots on goal, but only two of those were on target as City absorbed pressure effectively and mostly restricted Bucs to shots from range.

One of those, from Kabelo Dlamini in the 14th minute, was struck powerfully to cannon onto the crossbar via a touch from goalkeeper Darren Keet — one of a string of saves that earned the former Bafana Bafana No 1 the man of the match award.

Pirates’ other chances of the half were less convincing. Dlamini ‘s strike in the box deflected into Keet’s arms before long-range shots from Thalente Mbatha, held by the City keeper, and Relebohile Mofokeng went just wide.

The shots from outside the box continued from Bucs after the break, another Dlamini drive going just wide.

Action that flowed in the first half became slower and more cagey in the second, the stop-start nature playing more into the home team’s hands, given they had been on the back foot.

Then Bucs applied their best sustained six minutes of pressure, could not score, and then conceded.

Mbatha’s low, swerving shot was blocked by Keet in the 68th.

Moments later Pirates earned a softly-awarded penalty by referee Sikhumbuzo Gasa. A chip was played to Patrick Maswanganyi on the right of the box who went down under the attention of Tshegofatso Nyama, though it looked a 50/50 challenge.

Maswanganyi’s spot-kick was stopped by Keet.

Moments later Keet stopped again from Mofokeng’s mazy run and a goalmouth scramble.

With the traffic all one-way and Pirates unable to capitalise, the situation was ripe for a City smash and grab. They got it when substitute Jayden Rhodes fought into the area and teed up Gonzalez on the edge, whose strike took a big deflection to beat Keet.