Orlando Pirates suffered their second defeat in a space of three days after going down 4-5 on penalties to Casric Stars on Saturday evening.
After winning two domestic trophies on offer, the Buccaneers were favourites to lift the Nedbank Cup having reached three consecutive final. Against Casric Stars, all bets were on Pirates to ease past the Motsepe Foundation Championship side but the Sea Robbers failed to find a goal and were made to pay the penalty.
Orlando Pirates captain Nkosinathi Sibisi was one of the players blamed by fans after the humiliating loss. Bhodlela stepped up first but failed to convert, immediately putting his teammates under pressure.
Masindi Nemtajela, who had a bad outing midweek against Mamelodi Sundowns, had a poor game and was lashed out at on social media by fans.
Bucs coach Abdeslam Ouaddou felt his side missed chances to win the round of 16 clash at the Orlando Amstel Arena.
“We wanted to suffocate them quickly in the first half and create chances, unfortunately, it’s been the same story as the previous game, it’s important to be efficient, especially in the cups.
“When you miss such chances, like the first half, you can give confidence to the opponent and I think they defended well, did their job – we tried to bring more in the second half, creativity, to imbalance Casric, we created some chances…”
Orlando Pirates feeling the heat
Ouaddou confirmed that his players did practice penalties coming into Saturday’s match.
“For me, we could have finished the game earlier, but then it comes the penalties, which we worked on and prepared for in the week as it was a probability, but it’s like that, we lost and congratulations to Casric Stars FC, their players and technical staff,” Ouaddou said as per iDiski Times.
Orlando Pirates are playing Kaizer Chiefs next weekend in a Soweto Derby.