The second leg will be played in Orlando next Saturday.
Orlando Pirates handed Lioli FC of Lesotho a 3-0 drubbing in a CAF Champions League preliminary round first leg at the Free State Stadium on Saturday.
A brace from Tshegofatso Mabasa and a strike from Oswin Appollis gave the Buccaneers a huge advantage going to the second leg in Orlando next Saturday.
As expected, Pirates controlled ball possession early on in the match and they came close to taking an early lead through Thalente Mbatha in the fifth minute, but the midfielder’s shot went narrowly wide of goal from just outside the penalty area.
The hosts sat back as they looked to soak up the early pressure and try to catch Pirates on a counter-attack. However, Pirates were quick to close them down whenever they got a chance to counter.
Pirates came close to opening the scoring in the 20th minute through Appollis who was found by a clever pass Relebohile Mofokeng, but the Bafana Bafana winger shot wide of goal from close range.
From the restart, Lioli almost took the lead through Litsepe Marabe who found himself unmarked fire wide on the left of their attack, but the winger rushed his shot and, in the end, it was a tame one that failed to trouble Sipho Chaince.
Abdeslam Ouaddou’s charges created numerous scoring opportunities before the break, including Mbatha’s shot that hit the side-netting from close range on the stroke of half-time. Nonetheless, the score remained 0-0 in their favour at the break.
Ouaddou introduced Cemran Darsin and Tshepang Moremi for Mbatha and Mbule respectively to inject some pace into the Pirates attack.
It took the Buccaneers only eight minutes from the start of the second half to break the deadlock and they did that through Mabasa who nodded home a Deon Hotto corner kick.
Mabasa was to grab his brace four minutes later after scoring the opening goal when he finished off a perfectly weighted pass from Mofokeng and he smashed the ball home.
The Pirates striker wasted a glorious chance to complete his hat-trick in the 62nd minute when he headed a free header from a Moremi cross.
Appolis then put the game beyond the hosts’ reach with a clinical finish from a Moremi cross in referee’s optional time.
