Coach upset with wasteful Bucs

Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer believes his charges let themselves down in the second half following their 1-1 draw with Bloemfontein Celtic at the Dr Molemela Stadium on Saturday.

The Buccaneers let their 1-0 lead slip away after allowing the home side to equalise late in the game as both sides ended up sharing the spoils on the day.

“I think in the first half we were good, we had good combinations which we worked on during our training sessions. But the second half was not so good for us,” the Bucs mentor told SuperSport TV after the game.

“I think we lost control of the game and the opponents came at us. It’s not easy here. It was a really good second half for our opponents. But we will continue working, it’s a process, we will come and make it up.”

Meanwhile, Celtic head coach Letlhogonolo Seema said they knew what to expect from the Buccaneers after seeing their line-up, but he was disappointed with how they conceded the goal scored by Gabadinho Mhango (above), that is something he said they had worked on during their training sessions.

“Like I said before the start of the match, when we looked at their line-up we could see that they were not going to look for any combinations, just to try and put us under pressure and play long balls behind us and make sure that they were overloaded on the right side,” Seema added.

“That is where the goal came from and we knew that Gabadinho would come there and worked with the guys (on trying to stop him).

But if you concede a goal that you have worked on (trying to stop) and knew what was going to happen – what do you do?

“We told them during halftime that they are leading, but not winning. We had about three clear-cut chances that we could have used. So, we just told them to put our mindset to the game, defend better and our chances will come.”

The result sees Pirates advancing to 21 points after 15 games, while Celtic are on 18 points, having played the same number of games.