Orlando Pirates’ early CAF exit puts more pressure on Riveiro

Orlando Pirates season is not going according to plan following their shock exit from the CAF Champions League.

The Buccaneers lost 5-4 on penalties to Jwaneng Galaxy at the Orlando Stadium on Friday night. Although the home side won 1-0, the scores were level at 1-1 on aggregate.

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The Botswana champions came into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage and frustrated Orlando Pirates throughout the match. The Sea Robbers put pressure on the Galaxy defence early on but failed to find the early goal that could have put them in control of the match.

As the match went on, the home team became more frustrated as they failed to find clear-cut scoring opportunities. In the second half, substitute Evidence Makgopa broke the deadlock in the 65th minute to bring Pirates back into the game.

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Orlando Pirates eliminated from CAF Champions League

The last 20 minutes, the Buccaneers wrre camping in Jwaneng’s half but unfortunately they failed to find the winner which forced the match to go into penalties.

Pirates’ Relebohile Mofokeng was the only penatly taker that missed his kick which gave Jwaneng a 5-4 victory and sees them qualify for the CAF CL group stages.

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Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro now has to turn the Buccaneers season around. They have reached the MTN8 final but were not convinving especially in their second leg semi-final match against Stellenbosch.

Despite a promising pre-season, the Sea Robbers have often looked ordinary this season and are mid-table in the DStv Premiership.

The Buccaneers still struggling against Botswana teams

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This was not the first time that Orlando Pirates were eliminated by a team from Botswana. In 2010, Gaborone United eliminated the Buccaneers in the preliminary stages of the competition despite Ruud Krol’s team going 2-0 up. After a 0-0 draw in Botswana, Pirates went 2-0 ahead of Gaborone United but two late goals gave Botswana the win by scoring two away goals.

It seems Orlando Pirates have not learned their lesson 23 years later.

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