Zinnbauer confident Bucs can sail past Benghazi

ORLANDO Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer is relatively satisfied with his team’s outing in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup, but banks on their impressive home record to inspire them to victory against Ahli Benghazi tomorrow.

The Buccaneers are second on the Group A standings with five points, one behind Enyimba and one ahead of Benghazi. This follows a win over Enyimba at home, and draws against ES Setif in Tunisia and Benghazi in Libya.

“It’s a good competition. We’ve seen different teams, with different systems and playing fields. In our last game, we played on an artificial pitch. It was not easy for players who are not used to such fields. But it was a good experience for us,” Zinnbauer told the media yesterday.

“We now have the next home game. In the last game at home, we had three points and that’s our next target now. When we have a good game, good performance and three points, we are happy. And we go forward. Three points at home, pulls us closer to the quarter-finals.”

Pirates will host Benghazi at the Orlando Stadium tomorrow at 6pm hoping to claim maximum points and leapfrog Enyimba. It might be for a short while, given the Nigerians will only kick off their fourth round of matches against ES Setif three hours later.

However, that’s easier said than done. The Libyans held Pirates to a goalless draw in their last encounter at Benina Martyrs Stadium and still have a shot at finishing in the top two in Group A, which would see them qualify for the knockout stage.

But with an unbeaten home record this season, which includes two wins in as many matches in the continental showpiece, Pirates have ample reason to believe they can bag their second win in the group.

“We know that we are very strong at home. And when you have so many games unbeaten, you want to be unbeaten in the next game as well. I am a person who also works the best way I can. I think that my players also have the same view,” Zinnbauer said.

“We want to go to the quarter-finals. The target was always to get one point or more in the away games. We know we have a strong opponent but we know it’s possible to get three points.”

African football has been uncharted territory for Zinnbauer who’s in his second season at Pirates and on the continent. But it’s not for captain Happy Jele who’s been a Pirates servant since 2006.

With the Sea Robbers, Jele was part of the team that fell at the last hurdle of the Champions League and Confederation Cup to Egyptian and Tunisian giants Al Ahly and Etoile du Sahel in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

The 34-year-old defender is brimming with confidence that the current crop of players, who’ve already delivered silverware to the club’s trophy cabinet after six seasons of complete dust, can also reach the final of this season’s continental showpiece.

Meanwhile, Mamelodi Sundowns suffered a shock 2-0 defeat against Algerian visitors CR Belouizdad in their final CAF Champions League Group B match at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, yesterday.

Despite this defeat, Sundowns will advance to the quarter-final round, together with Belouizdad, who finished Group B runners-up. The result, however, marks Sundowns’ first defeat in this season’s continental competition.

The remaining two Group B teams, Al Hilal Omdurman (Sudan) and TP Mazembe (Democratic Republic of the Congo) will join the ranks of the alsorans. Mazembe managed a 2-1 win over winless Al Hilal in the other Group B encounter, and ended third in the group.