Chippa United welcome last season’s runners up Orlando Pirates to the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth for their 22nd league meeting.
The two sides face off in the third league match of the season in two consecutive seasons.
Orlando Pirates go into this match on the back of one loss and one win after succumbing to Stellenbosch FC in the first match of the season but redeeming themselves in their last league match by beating Royal AM 4-2 at home.
Orlando Pirates are also on the back of a 5-0 victory over Sekhukhune United in the MTN 8 Quarterfinal.
For Chippa United they come into this match after playing out two draws in their opening two matches, they are also searching for their first goal of the campaign.
Orlando Pirates have a superior win record against Chippa United after last season’s 2-0 victory, which was in the corresponding fixture took them to 14 league victories over Chippa who have four wins in this fixture, the two teams have drawn on two occasions.
Chippa United have only managed 14 goals against the Buccaneers who have scored 32 goals in this fixture, over the previous 20 league clashes between the teams.
The last meeting in the league ended 2-0 in favour of Orlando Pirates as goals by Kabelo Dlamini and Thembinkosi Lorch secured the three points for Pirates, the other match last season saw Chippa United beat Pirates 1-0. With the away team winning each of their league clashes last season.
Chippa United’s biggest win in this fixture was in the 2015/16 season when they beat Orlando Pirates 2-0. Orlando Pirates biggest win came in that very season as they beat Chippa United 4-1 both were home wins.
The most goals scored in a single match in this fixture was 6 which came in the 2017/18 campaign when Pirates beat Chippa 4-2 on the road as well as in the 2018/19 season which also ended 4-2 in favour of the sea robbers. The latter being a home fixture.
Tshegofatso Mabaso and Mpho Makola both have scored the most goals in this fixture with 3 goals.
There has been 32 different goals scorers in this fixture with the addition of four players who have scored own goals, over the 20 previous league clashes between the teams.
Chippa United:
Chippa United who just survived the relegation last season are looking to avoid the relegation zone altogether this season, however, they have not managed to find the back of the net this season.
They have just announced the signing of Sinoxolo Kwayibe who is originally from Gqeberha.
They go into this encounter on the back of a 0-0 draw against TS Galaxy at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in their last league games and a 0-0 draw against Kaizer Chiefs at the FNB Stadium in their opening game.
They only managed three home wins last season which made them the team with the joint fewest home wins last season along with Richards Bay.
Last season Chippa won 14 points from their 15 home league games (W3 D5 L7).
Last season they were the 5th best when it came to duels won as they managed to win 1527 duels.
Going back to last season Chippa United are winless in their last 8 home league games (D3 L5).
Chippa’s last home league win was against Maritzburg United on the 29th January a 1-0 win.
Orlando Pirates:
Orlando Pirates are looking to make it back to back wins this season and stretch their three points to six. They find themselves in sixth position with three points and a goal difference of one after two league matches.
Runners up in the 2022/2023 season will be looking to make a statement this season as they climbed from a six position finish in the 2021/22 season to second last season.
Orlando Pirates are on the back of a resounding 5-0 victory over Sekhukhune United in the MTN 8 Quarterfinal at the Orlando Stadium as in form Zakhele Lepasa scored a hat-trick.
Lepasa who is already on 5 goals (in all competitions) will be looking to fire again against a Chippa United side that are yet to score this season. The race for golden boot is heating up between Lepasa and Mamelodi Sundowns’ Lucas Ribiero Costa as both have scored two goals in two matches.
Lepasa will be looking to score for a third game in succession in all competitions.
In Orlando Pirates third match of the previous season they came up short against the Chilli Boys who beat the Sea Robbers 0-1 at the Orlando Stadium.
In the previous DStv Premiership season Orlando Pirates recorded the second most wins on the road with 8 one behind Mamelodi Sundowns who had 9 away wins.
They also scored the second most goals in the 2022/23 season with 40 league goals with star player Monnapule Saleng scoring 11 of those goals and making an assist on 8 occasions, the winger is currently on one league goal after two matches have been played.
Last season Orlando Pirates were awarded the most corners with a total of 194 corners.
So far in the new campaign they have the second most successful passes with 970 passes behind Mamelod Sundowns who are on 978 passes.
Head to Head (League):
P W D L GF GA GD
Chippa United 20 4 2 14 14 32 -18
Orlando Pirates 20 14 2 4 32 14 18