Bucs meet Les Corbeaux (The Ravens) in the last 16 of the CAF Champions League and the Soweto side will hope to avenge their defeat at the hands of Mazembe 11 years ago.
Pirates and TP Mazembe have met only once in an official match. The two sides met for the first time in the 2002 edition of the Champions League. Having drawn the first leg 1-1 in Lubumbashi, Pirates only needed a goalless draw at home to go through to the group stage of the competition.
Pirates who took the game to Tembisa Stadium and kept Mazembe at bay during the first stanza. However, the wheels came off soon after the restart of the game as Mazembe scored the opening goal. The Pirates coach at the time Jean-Yves Kerjean took off Gerald Raphahlela for Steve Lekoelea – the move paid off courtesy of an overlapping Mbulelo 'Old John' Mabizela scoring the equaliser.
However it would be the visitors who would have the final say in the match with goals from Munandi llunga and Mbomboko Ngoyi. The game ended 3-1 in favour of Mazembe (4-2 on aggregate) and Bucs crashed out.
The two sides also met twice in the Vodacom Challenge with both sides winning.
Vodacom Challenge
29 June 2003: Orlando Pirates 1-1 TP Mazembe (Mazembe win 4-2 on penalties)
11 July 2004: Orlando Pirates 2-1 TP Mazembe.
Interestingly, the two clubs have done business together with the likes of Makweni Mayala and Felix Muamba Musasa crossing the floor from Mazembe to Orlando Pirates in 2003.
TP Mazembe made history in 2010 when they became the first African club to reach the final of the Fifa World Club Cup, where they lost 1-0 to Inter Milan. Established in 1932, TP Mazembe has won the coveted CAF Champions League four times – 1967, 1968, 2009, and 2010.
Mazembe's top players include Tresor Mputu, Rainford Kalaba, Stoppila Sunzu and Muteba Kidiaba, who grabbed the spotlight during the 2013 Afcon with his famous bum bounce goal celebration.