Mamelodi Sundowns came back from a goal behind and staged an impressive fightback to beat Marumo Gallants 3-1 in an entertaining league match played at the Petrus Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein on Wednesday night.
Sundowns have now opened a 12-point gap at the top of the Betway Premiership log table.
In KZN, Orlando Pirates’ match against Golden Arrows was abandoned before kick-off and the game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at the Mpumalanga Stadium in Hammarsdale.
This has left the Buccaneers, who are second on the league table, with three games in hand.
Sundowns were beaten 1-0 by TS Galaxy in their last league match a week ago and on Wednesday night, they took it out on poor Gallants who played well and did not deserve to lose by such a high margin.
At some point, it looked like Gallants could steal the three points but Masandawana’s class and quality prevailed.
The two sides met in the first half of the season, where Masandawana were the hosts and went on to win the game 4-1. But it was not that easy on Wednesday night in Bloemfontein.
Sundowns dangerman and the league’s most enterprising player Lucas Ribeiro Costa was a thorn in the flesh for the Gallants defenders. When not creating opportunities and dribbling the home side players, he took pot-shots at their goalkeeper Washington Arubi.
But the muscular Zimbabwean was always alert and had done his homework on how to stop the deadly Brazilian in the first half.
With the league champions dominating the proceedings, Gallants resorted to launching sporadic counter attacks that were fast and furious. One of their sweeping moves down the left flank resulted in the opening goal by the home side.
Daniel Msendani capitalised on the acres of space and stormed forward where his inch-perfect cross landed on the chiskop of Junior Dion, who nodded the ball into the net.
Gallants held on to their lead until the half break. But Sundowns came back from the recess more determined and six minutes after the restart, Marcelo Allende grabbed the equaliser with a grass-cutter that left Arubi sprawled on the wet surface.
The goal energised the legions of Sundowns supporters who spurred their team forward in search of the three points.
Ribeiro made it 2-1 when he squeezed the ball into net following an assist from Arthur Sales. Sundowns sealed the game when Iqraam Rayners netted the third on the stroke of fulltime.
There was drama towards the end when Downs goalkeeper Dennis Onyango was given a red carded after fouling a goal-bound Gabadinho Mhango on the edge of the box.
Right-back Thapelo Morena took the gloves and luckily, he was not tested as his teammates defended in numbers and protected him well.
