COACH of Orlando Pirates, Abdeslam Ouaddou, led the celebrations at Mbombela Stadium following his team’s defeat by Durban City in a match they should have won in order to win the Betway Premiership title in front of crowds of fans at Orlando Amstel Arena, Soweto, on Saturday afternoon.
Pirates came out with a point in the game that ended 0-0 which was expected to collect three of them, equal to Mamelodi Sundowns who are at the top of the Premiership log with 68 points. The Blacks are in second place with 66.
In the last match of the season, they will face Orbit College, who are avoiding relegation, at Mbombela Stadium, Mpumalanga, on Saturday at 3 pm. This game has changed to the one that carries the joy and tears of Pirates fans who last saw their team win the league title in 2012. The game against Orbit was expected to be fun and give other players a chance to prove themselves.
After the game, Ouaddou said he believes that they will definitely finish the job in Mbombela next weekend.
“At the beginning of the season I said that the league competition will continue until the last day. I’m not worried but I’m disappointed because we didn’t win. But let’s go to the last game to win the cup. It’s been many years since Pirates didn’t win the league and that was seen on the field. To my boys, I want you to go and take the title next weekend,” said Ouaddou in Supersport.
On the field, Pirates applied pressure from the start of the game but the strength of City’s back wall made the Black strikers struggle.