Pirates cruise to the next round of the Caf Champions League

Inexperience nearly ruined Orlando Pirates ambitions in the Caf Champions League as they had to dig deep to beat minnows from Mauritius, La Cure Waves SC 3-1 in the second leg of the first round play-off played at Amstel Arena in Orlando on Saturday.

Pirates were under pressure to win this match to progress to the second preliminary round after only eking out a 0-0 draw against La Cure in the first leg they played away last Sunday.

There was panic in the Bucs camp after La Cure took an unlikely lead in the 6 th minute after Sipho Chaine’s poor clearance gave Jean Ami a chance to give the visitors the lead. Chaine, the only Pirates player in Abdeslam Ouaddou’s line-up with experience of playing in this competition, saw his clearance blocked by Ami before tapping the ball into an empty net.

But Pirates quickly regrouped and managed to get not just the equaliser in the 8 th minute but scored two more goals to go to the interval with a deserved 3-1 lead.

Pirates were able to make short passes inside La Cure’s half and it was during those build-ups that Kabelo Kgositsile cancelled La Cure’s lead after exchanging passes with Simphiwe Masilela on the left flank.

The second goal came from the right side of the field where Kgositsile and Kamogelo Sebelebele proved to be a handful for the visitors. Sebelebele did finally give Pirates the lead in the 25 th minute before Yanela Mbuthuma gave Ouaddou’s team more hope of progress after heading in Thapelo Mokobodi’s corner kick in the 37 th minute.

But it will be a stretch to expect this Pirates side to go that much deeper in this competition as Ouaddou has a tough task to rebuild a side which has seen most of its stalwarts snapped up by overseas clubs before the start of the current campaign.

In Ouaddou’s starting XI only Chaine and Oswin Appollis had the experience of playing on the continent as most of the Pirates players are in their debut season with Soweto giants. But there’s some hope of Pirates at least making the group stages as they will face either African Stars of Namibia or AS Manga Sport of Gabon.

But for that to happen they will have to improve their ability to deal with a low block as they failed in the second half of this match to add more goals despite a plethora of substitutions by Ouaddou and playing against greenhorns who were making their debut in this competition.