Boitumelo Radiopane scored for Orlando Pirates as they came from behind to draw 1-1 with Spanish second division side Cordoba FC at the Marble Football Center on Wednesday evening.
Coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s starting line-up consisted of three new faces, Ghampani Lungu who signed from Siwelele FC, Sbangani Zulu who arrived from Richards Bay and the side’s youth protégé Mpho Padime while he also started young goalkeeper Siyabonga Dladla ahead of Sipho Chaine.
The Spanish side had three clear goal scoring opportunities with Eder Garcia proving to be a handful for the Buccaneers having a go at them inside the opening 10 minutes where his shot went slightly off target.
Three minutes later Garcia had another chance to break the deadlock and missed. There was also a threatening short from Juan Gutierrez which was cleared by the Pirates defense inside the box.
In the 19th minute the visitors’ captain Patrick Maswanganyi received the ball from Abdoulaye Mariko, the former took a shot from just outside the box but it was deflected for a corner and nothing came off the set-piece. Mariko had a promising attempt go wide at the half hour mark. The match went into halftime without any goals.
Bohlale Ngwato and Neo Rapoo came on in the second half for Pirates and they started the stanza the better of the two sides. There was a chance for Pirates to take the lead in the 59th minute through Zulu but his effort was cleared on the line. Ouaddou made a host changes in the 63rd minute including in goals and also bringing on Thapelo Xoki from a long injury lay off.
Meanwhile a breakthrough came for the hosts five minutes later through Javi Antras from a Kevin Medina assist. However Radiopane leveled 15 minutes to time after capitalizing on the opposition’s goalie’s carelessness.
Pirates will next face Cadiz CF in their second friendly on Saturday.