South African duo Daylon Claasen and Lehlogonolo Masalesa were both victorious with their relegation threatened sides in Europe on Monday.
German based midfielder Claasen came off the bench in his TSV 1860 Munich’s 2-0 win over Nurnberg in the Bundesliga second tier [2. Bundesliga] match played at Allianz Arena.
New acquisition and Senegalese international Abdoulaye Ba and Ghanaian starlet Lumor Agbenyenu were Munich’s scorers.
This was Die Lowen’s second consecutive win having also ousted Karlsruher SC 2-1 to climb to 14th on the 16-team league and go seven points clear from the chasing pack.
Midfielder Claasen was introduced in the 76th minute – in the place of Levent Aycicek- for his 14th appearance of the campaign.
Elsewhere, former Orlando Pirates midfielder Masalesa won for the first time in eight matches with his Athlitiki Enosi Larissa in the Greek Super League.
Larissa overcame Levadiakos 2-1 courtesy of strikes from Adnan Aganovic and Vasilios Rentzas whilst Nikolaos Kaltsas scored for the visitors.
Despite seeing regular game time, the 24-year-old has been on the receiving end of some undesired results in recent times; losing three, drew four and won one of the last eight games that he’s been involved in.
With the win, The Crimsons –placed 13th in the 16-team team log- pulled six points clear of the bottom three.
Masalesa silently left Pirates for Greece where he is seemingly enjoying his football again after four barren seasons with the Buccaneers.
Journeyman Claasen, 27, is in the last season of his current deal with Munich and it remains to be seen if he will be offered a new deal, given his side survives relegation, or if he will opt to look for the greener pastures.
The duo were both not in the plans of sacked Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba but will be hoping his successor will give them a closer look.
Claasen and Munich next travel to Union Berlin on Friday whilst Masalesa travels to AEK Athens on Sunday.
Also in action on Monday was May Mahlangu with his Dinamo Bucuresti who won 1-0 against Botosani in the Romanian Liga 1.
Mahlangu appeared for the 13th time for his midtable laying team.
