Orlando Pirates vs Las Palmas: Preview, team news, prediction, betting tips

Orlando Pirates welcome Las Palmas to the Marbella Football Center on Wednesday, July 22, for the fourth of five pre-season friendlies on the Betway Premiership champions’ Spanish training camp.

The Buccaneers arrive with the swagger of a domestic treble in their locker and a squad still finding its shape after a summer of departures and new faces. Las Palmas, meanwhile, are barely a week into pre-season under a brand new head coach, still absorbing the disappointment of a promotion play-off exit at the hands of Málaga last month.

Both clubs used this exact fixture twelve months ago to open a pre-season friendship of sorts, and that meeting in the same corner of Spain finished goalless. This time, with wholesale changes on both benches and in both dressing rooms, a repeat stalemate looks far less certain.

Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou is using the trip to integrate seven new signings following Relebohile Mofokeng’s high-profile exit, while Las Palmas boss Rubén de la Barrera is only now getting his first proper look at a squad missing two first-choice centre-backs from last season.

Pirates aim to build on treble as Las Palmas rebuild

Recent pre-season form

Las Palmas’ 2025-26 competitive form is not shown above, as it belongs to a different season and squad under a different head coach.

Ouaddou walked into Mayfair in June 2025 and delivered a campaign that no Betway Premiership coach had managed before him. Pirates won the league title for the first time in 14 years, added the MTN8 and the Carling Knockout, and finished the season with 32 wins from 44 matches in all competitions. That treble ended Mamelodi Sundowns’ eight-season grip on the domestic crown and took the Buccaneers’ all-time top-flight title haul into double figures.

The Spanish trip has already tested the depth of that success. Pirates opened with a 1-1 draw against Córdoba CF on July 15, Boitumelo Radiopane cancelling out an early deficit, before a much-improved display saw them come from behind to beat Cádiz CF 2-1 three days later. Tshepang Moremi levelled with a pile-driver before setting up Daniel Msendami for the winner, offering an early glimpse of an attack that has kept functioning despite significant turnover in personnel.

That turnover is the real story of this tour. Mofokeng’s move to Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise leaves a gap in the number 10 role that Ouaddou has not yet settled, while Sipho Mbule, Bandile Shandu, Thabiso Lebitso, Gilberto and Karim Kimvuidi have also left Mayfair. Seven new faces have arrived to compensate, including Mthetheleli Mthiyane from Stellenbosch and a quartet of former Kaizer Chiefs players in Bohlale Ngwato, Ghampani Lungu, Neo Rapoo and Aphiwe Baliti.

Las Palmas travel to Spain in a very different frame of mind. The Canary Islanders finished fifth in the 2025-26 Segunda División on 73 points from 20 wins, 13 draws and nine defeats, enough to reach the promotion play-offs for the second time in four years. Málaga eliminated them at the semi-final stage on the away-goals-adjusted rule after a 1-1 draw at La Rosaleda, following a 0-1 first-leg loss on Gran Canaria, leaving the Amarillos to prepare for another season outside the top flight.

That defeat proved costly for head coach Luis García, whose contract only guaranteed an extension in the event of promotion. He instead left to take charge of Mallorca, and Las Palmas moved quickly to appoint Rubén de la Barrera as his successor. The Galician only took his first training session with the group on July 13, meaning this trip to Marbella is effectively his first opportunity to assess the squad in match conditions.

Squad rebuilding is well underway on Gran Canaria. Centre-backs Mika Mármol and Sergio Barcia have both left the club, a departure the sporting director has openly admitted needs addressing before the transfer window closes. Midfielder Sergio Ruiz, forward Mateo Acimovic and defender Andrés Rodríguez have arrived to date, while forward Jesé Rodríguez has committed his future to the club with a contract extension through to 2028 after leading the team’s scoring charts last season.

Head-to-head: Orlando Pirates vs Las Palmas

This fixture has no competitive history behind it, and the clubs’ only prior meeting on record is last year’s corresponding pre-season friendly, staged in the same corner of southern Spain.

Las Palmas were the nominal hosts on that occasion, with both sides still finding their feet early in pre-season, and the match finished goalless. With an entirely different Pirates squad and a brand new Las Palmas coaching staff in place twelve months on, that result carries little weight on this meeting beyond serving as the only reference point available.

Team news: Orlando Pirates vs Las Palmas

Orlando Pirates

Patrick Maswanganyi looks the most likely candidate to fill the creative void left by Relebohile Mofokeng, shifting into a more central number 10 role after operating from wider positions last season.

Oswin Appollis remains the standout name in the squad, and each pre-season outing is being watched closely given reported interest from FC Porto.

Evidence Makgopa will be keen to convert chances up front having spurned a clear opportunity against Cádiz, while Andre de Jong and Thalente Mbatha have formed an effective double pivot that Ouaddou will want to see replicated against senior Spanish opposition.

With matches against Al Ittihad and Las Palmas scheduled on consecutive days, Ouaddou is expected to rotate his goalkeeping and defensive options between the two fixtures, meaning the exact starting personnel here may differ from those used 24 hours earlier in Marbella.

Predicted Orlando Pirates XI (4-2-3-1): Chaine; Sebelebele, Ndaba, Sibisi, Xoki; De Jong, Mbatha; Moremi, Maswanganyi, Appollis; Msendami.

Las Palmas

The back line is the obvious concern for De la Barrera. With both first-choice centre-backs from last season gone, Álex Suárez and new arrival Andrés Rodríguez are among the options being tried out in the middle of defence, and the club’s own sporting hierarchy has acknowledged that further defensive signings are needed before the window closes. Jesé Rodríguez, fresh off his contract extension, is set to lead the attacking line, with Sandro Ramírez the likeliest partner in a front two.

Given the head coach has had barely a week with his squad, expect a heavily experimental Las Palmas XI, with several academy prospects who travelled to Marbella in contention for minutes off the bench.

Predicted Las Palmas XI (4-4-2): Horkas; Marvin Park, Clemente, A Rodríguez, Suárez; Viti, Kirian, Fuster, Miyashiro; Jesé, Sandro.

Star player face-off

Appollis heads into this tour as the crown jewel of the Pirates squad, a status underlined by his four goals and six assists last season and reflected in the transfer speculation now surrounding him.

Jesé’s story is different but no less compelling: a Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain academy product now leading the line for Las Palmas at 33, his ten goals for the Amarillos last term were enough to convince the club to tear up his contract and extend it to 2028.

The Managers

Abdeslam Ouaddou is one of the most in-demand coaches in African football right now, and deservedly so. The 47-year-old Moroccan earned 60 caps for his country during a playing career that took in France, Greece and Qatar, before moving into coaching roles across Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco and a brief spell at Marumo Gallants in the Betway Premiership.

He was appointed at Pirates on June 23, 2025, replacing José Riveiro, and delivered an immediate treble built on tactical discipline, defensive solidity and rapid transitions.

Rubén de la Barrera arrives in Marbella with a very different profile. The 41-year-old from A Coruña has built his reputation almost entirely in Spain’s lower divisions, winning promotions with both Cultural Leonesa and Albacete Balompié and taking charge of his hometown club Deportivo de la Coruña on two separate occasions.

💛 Un nuevo camino comienza.

Presentada Las Palmas Atlético para la temporada 2026/27, mañana dará comienzo una nueva pretemporada llena de ilusión, trabajo y ambición.

📲 Nota completa: https://t.co/LmnXyGomD2 #LasPalmasAtlético #SienteLaUnión #LaUniónHaceLasPalmas pic.twitter.com/AWv1KbOVRp

— UD Las Palmas – Cantera (@UDLP_Cantera) July 20, 2026

His most recent post came at Portuguese side Vizela, where results did not go his way and the club was relegated, and he also had a short spell in charge of the El Salvador national team. Las Palmas will be hoping his track record of getting sides promoted from the Spanish second tier translates into a swift return to the top flight.

Tactical preview

Ouaddou’s Pirates set up in a 4-2-3-1 built around the platform provided by De Jong and Mbatha in the double pivot, freeing Appollis and Moremi to attack the flanks with real pace.

The absence of Mofokeng leaves a gap in creativity through the middle that Maswanganyi is being trusted to fill, and how comfortably he adapts to that central role will be one of the more interesting subplots of this Spanish trip.

✅ ¡Ya rueda el balón en el @MarbellaFCenter! 💪🏽#PretemporadaUD 💛💙#SienteLaUnión #LaUniónHaceLasPalmas pic.twitter.com/yahZhgnAo4

— UD Las Palmas (@UDLP_Oficial) July 20, 2026

Las Palmas have most often used a 4-4-2 under previous management, built around control in midfield and a front two capable of combining close together, and De la Barrera’s own coaching reputation for offensive, front-foot football suggests he is unlikely to tear up that template immediately.

The bigger issue is defensive cohesion: with two experienced centre-backs gone and their likely replacements only just being tested together, a back line still finding its shape is exactly the kind of target Pirates’ pacey wide players will look to exploit in behind.

Betting tips and predictions

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