Pirates urged to focus on the prize ahead of Durban City tie

Victory in this encounter will all but guarantee their status as Betway Premiership champions.

As the 2025/26 Betway Premiership campaign draws close to an end, all eyes will be on Orlando Pirates this weekend to see if they will finally end their long wait for the league title.

The Buccaneers will host Durban City at home at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday (kick-off is at 3pm). Victory in this encounter will all but guarantee their status as Betway Premiership champions.

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The Buccaneers, however, cannot mathematically guarantee themselves the title in their second last game, but their superior goal difference over Mamelodi Sundowns means that they can ensure it would take a huge defeat on the final day to stop them from lifting the trophy for the first time in 14 years.

A 3-2 defeat at TS Galaxy for Sundowns in the last game of the season on Wednesday, left the defending champions on 68 points and unable to add a single point more, which means a win for Pirates on Saturday would move them level on 68 points. But due to their superior goal difference, the Buccaneers will leapfrog the Brazilians at the top of the log standings.

‘We feel strong’

Speaking ahead of the City clash, Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has called on his charges to focus on the task at hand of getting over the line as far as the league title is concerned.

“We are focusing on ourselves; our destiny is between our feet. We just focus on how we want to play, how we want to be organized. You can see a strong Pirates, we don’t concede goals, and we score goals,” said Ouaddou.

“I just told the boys to focus on how we want to play. We are not expecting anything from anybody, we are focusing on our team, and we are really confident of what we want to achieve.

“We feel strong and we are going to prepare for the game with a lot of focus and we will give everything.”

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Head-to-head statistics favour Pirates going into this encounter because as Maritzburg United and then Durban City, the club has never managed to beat Orlando Pirates at the Orlando Stadium (now known as Orlando Amstel Arena) in the Premier Soccer League era.

Pirates edged City 1-0 away in Durban in the reverse fixture earlier this season.