Bumbling Bucs have it all to do
● By failing to beat FC Platinum on Friday night, Orlando Pirates have turned what looked like a molehill into a mountain.
Bumbling Bucs drew 2-2 with the Group B whipping boys from Zimbabwe at the Orlando Stadium on Friday night.
The result left the South Africans languishing in third spot in the four-team log and leaves their chances of reaching the Confederation of African Football Champions League quarterfinals hanging by the thinnest of threads.
Table-toppers Esperance of Tunisia secured their quarterfinal spot with a 2-0 defeat of Guinea side Horoya SC in Tunis on Friday night.
Now Pirates, the 1995 champions, have it all to do and nothing but victory away to Horoya in Conakry will do for the Sea Robbers to sail to the last eight of Africa’s premier inter-club competition.
They will travel to Guinea on Wednesday in a make or break encounter and a clash which Bucs boss Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic has dubbed a final for his charges.
A draw will put paid to Bucs hopes and will spell the end of the road for the 2013 finalists.
“We started the game with a mad desire to win, but it was not a walk on the park. We had a very good opponent team coached by a very good coach: we wanted to have the point to guarantee us to have a draw there.
“But in the same moment it is an early Caf Champions league final for Orlando Pirates to be played at the 28th September Stadium in Conakry,” said the Serb.
“You are going without any calculation. You clearly know what takes you through or what takes you out.
“So [this is] a chance to grow as a team because even today has been a great lesson for the team on how to grow. From being 2-0 down some teams will give up but I give credit to the players and us the technical team.
“You never say die, never give up. That is the character of this great club that we are representing.
“I would just say as a coach in 2006 I came here and I grew up under our chairman teaching us about the history. I still remember it was also in Abidjan, Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium, where they went and they won against Asec Mimosa.
“This is a chance for us for history to repeat itself. It is not the same, it was a final [in 1995] . But it is almost the same. Let us take it that way, fully aware that only a win will take us through.”
“We know it is not easy to go there but if you ask me where I’m drawing motivation for this, when you’re wearing this badge you need to believe. We shall give our best and we are looking to fight to go to the quarterfinals of the Caf Champions League,” he said.