DE SA RELYING ON FIGHTING SPIRIT
Pirates won t sit back in Cairo
Champions League trophy. Pirates need a 1-1 draw to go to penalties, while a win or any score draw of 2-2 or higher will bring the trophy back to Bucs ’ cabinet in Parktown.
The Buccaneers beat Ahly 3-0 away in the group stages, though they face an entirely different prospect in the second leg of the final on Sunday.
“The game in Cairo will be different,” said Ahly coach Mohamed Youssef. “The last game was played in our fasting month of Ramadan, and we played at 2.30pm in 45°Celsius heat. And it was not our home ground.”
Pirates ’ midfielder Daine Klate said whatever Bucs experience in Cairo, it cannot be worse than their tempestuous match against TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi in the knockout stages.
“We came through that and we can always go back and look at that reference. They can take us wherever they want, a good field, a bad field, keep on changing the venue, the game from Saturday to Sunday – whatever blows their hair back. We just have to be ready for whatever, ” said a determined Klate.
Also giving Bucs some hope is that they have dominated Ahly in three matches, even if they only managed to win one of those.
De Sa said Bucs will attack again in Cairo.
“To be honest, we don ’ t really have a defensive team. We don ’ t really know how to play all at the back – we play the way we play,” said De Sa.
“So the way we ’ ve got to go to Cairo is to play. We ’ ve done it before. The mountain keeps getting higher and higher but I really don ’ t know what the limit is of this lot [Pirates]. They keep going, so let ’ s see how far we can go.”