Orlando Pirates and Cape Town City look set to renew their rivalry when the two sides meet at the Orlando Stadium in the Absa Premiership on Saturday.

The Buccaneers will be hoping to return to winning ways after falling to 4-3 defeat by Bidvest Wits in their previous league encounter, despite scoring three goals through Tshegofatso Mabaso, Musa Nyatama and Gabadinho Mhango.

Rhulani Mokwena’s side currently occupy 10th place in the league standings with eight points, having won two, drawn two and conceded two defeats in six matches in the PSL so far this season.

‘I think if we play [in the same manner as against Wits], nine times out of 10, with the same standard of performance we’d probably win the match,’ Mokwena said.

‘But it’s a work in progress, we’re integrating a lot of new players and we’ve changed structures slightly from what we played in the last two seasons.

‘So, we just keep working and trying to make sure. There’s 72 points left to play for, so we’ll continue to fight and make sure we gather as many points as possible.’

Meanwhile, City are currently on a five-match winless run in the league following their 1-1 draw with Golden Arrows at Cape Town Stadium in their last league encounter.

Having won one game, drawn four and conceded just one defeat, Benni McCarthy’s side find themselves in 11th place on the league table with seven points from six matches.

‘Something is missing there and I’m yet to put my finger on it, but I think we are throwing points away like there’s no tomorrow‚’ McCarthy said.

‘We look like a team that can pick up three points in most games but we are not grabbing our chances. We are ruthless [but] we are not there yet. It’s disappointing.

‘We’ve added far better players to our squad than we had before but things are going pearshaped.

‘Maybe I must go back to grinding out wins‚ getting dirty the old-fashioned way.

‘In this bubble that we are in‚ we are too set on playing beautiful football … nice passes etc.’

Head to head

In the 12 previous league matches played between the two sides, Pirates and City have both registered three wins apiece, while the remaining six games have ended in stalemates.

A total of 29 goals have been scored to date with Pirates netting 15 and City 14 times, respectively. However, only one game in the five years of this mouthwatering encounter has ever ended in a goalless stalemate and that was back in 2016.