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Preview: Pirates v Celtic

Cape Town - Two clubs with new coaches at the helm, Orlando Pirates and Bloemfontein Celtic, go head to head at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday night.

Read: Nhlapho, a 'converted' defender

The Buccaneers, now under caretaker coach Eric Tinkler, are placed fifth on the league standings with 23 points from 16 matches.

Celtic are 10th, with 20 points from 16 games, having changed coaches at the beginning of this week when Clinton Larsen took over from Ernst Middendorp.

Larsen made a good start to his latest chapter with the club, securing a 2-0 win against Black Aces in midweek, while Pirates could only manage a 1-1 stalemate against Moroka Swallows on Wednesday.

While Larsen’s arrival brought to an end a run of just one point from four matches under Middendorp, Pirates have blown hot and cold since Tinkler took over three weeks ago, the former Bafana midfielder having seen his side win one, draw two and lose one of the four games in which he has been in charge.

Tinkler at least has two strikers very much in form and both Kermit Erasmus and Lehlohonolo Majoro (who netted against Swallows) will be out to show what they can do after being somewhat surprisingly left out of Shakes Mashaba’s 2015 AFCON preliminary squad.

Larsen, though, has talked about his side being more relaxed in front of goal and this seemed to pay off with a double strike from the highly-rated Gabadinho Mhango in the win over Aces.

Neither team has any suspensions nor new injury concerns ahead of the showdown in Soweto.

The first-round encounter between the two sides ended in a 2-2 draw in the Free State. Overall Bucs have had the better of Phunya Sele Sele over the years, with 27 wins over 12 and 14 draws.

Kick-off is at 20:15.

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