Pirates rue needless CAF draws
Pirates need to win final match
When they jet off for Conakry, Guinea, on Wednesday, Orlando Pirates will take with them a onetrack mind which could be to their benefit ahead of their crucial final group match. Bucs have a single game of 90 minutes to prove that they belong among the elite teams in the elimination stages of CAF Champions League. After they were held by unfancied Zimbabwean club FC Platinum to a 2-2 draw on Friday, the Soweto giants will now take on Guinean side Horoya AC in a must-win clash at the Stade du 28 Septembre on Saturday. The Buccaneers have only themselves to blame by playing needless draws against Platinum and Esperance from Tunisia before that. They now are third in the Group B with six points while Horoya are second with seven. “Maybe if we won, we would go there with calculations and now we are going without calculations and we know what needs to be done,” Bucs coach Milutin Sredojevic said.
“We wanted a win that will guarantee that a draw away will be enough. As an optimist and a born winner, we need to believe.
“It is an early final for us. We know exactly what will take us through. It will be a chance to grow as a team.” Some costly defensive mistakes let them down in the game at the Orlando Stadium, where they had to fight back from 2-0 down. Defender Alfred Ndengane deflected a shot from Never Tegiri to beat keeper Wayne Sandilands for Platinum’s opening goal. Another Ndengane error gifted the visitors the second goal. “Ndengane is a player who gives 200% always. His two mistakes were unfortunate,” Sredojevic said. “It is easy to throw the player under the bus. It’s very important to give him a hand and show we are behind him.” Pirates are winless away in the current CAF campaign, but breaking their duck in Conakry shouldn’t be mission impossible.