Orlando Pirates suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of FC Saint-Éloi Lupopo in the CAF Champions League first leg of the second preliminary round.
A heavy defeat at the Stade Frederic Kibassa Maliba Stadium has seen many Bucs fans asking for Relebohile Mofokeng and Lebone Seema. The latter formed a formidable centre-back pairing with Mbekezeli Mbokozi but agaisnt St Lupopo, the young defender was on the bench.
What Pirates fans are saying
Mofokeng suffered an injury earlier this month against Siwelele forcing him out of the Bafana Bafana squad. The 20-year-old is still unavailable for selection and the club have not issued a statement regarding the extend of his injury.
Seema on the otherhand, was benched for the more experienced Nkosinathi Sibisi on Sunday. Pirates fans took to X to question why Abdeslam Ouaddou opted to start with the Bucs captain.
“We’re not turning this around especially with Mofokeng being injured. This is a disaster,” @IceHota26 tweeted.
“Wadu will start Seema at Orlando to bribe the fans, he must pray we don’t concede and we win coz jeeer my fanbase will go hard,” tweeted @BathabileLethob.
@KiiNG_18 wrote: “Experience doesn’t work, Mbokazi is better than Sibisi with way less experience.
Seema and Mbokazi gave us clean sheets, took us to the MTN8 finals and won it for us. Where was the experience lapho?
Pirates suffer heavy defear
“Anyone that mentions Sibisi’s “experience” as an excuse as to why he started the game should tell me how Mbokazi is a better defender than him with way less experience.
Seema & Mbokazi’s partnership gave us 8 clean sheets & Wadu saw it best to start an unrested Sibisi over Seema? @KiiNG_18 tweeted.
Orlando Pirates host the return leg this coming weekend at the Orlando Stadium hoping to overturn the tie.