Galaxy coach warns Pirates the tie is not over yet

Jwaneng Galaxy head coach Morena Ramoreboli believes his side can still knock Orlando Pirates out of the Champions League again, even though they went down 2-0 to the Buccaneers in the first leg of their second preliminary round qualifier in Gaborone on Saturday.

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Goals from Tshegofatso Mabasa and Deon Hotto were enough to give Jose Riveiro’s side a handy lead to take back to Saturday’s second leg at Orlando Stadium. Pirates are certainly in a much better position than they were last year, when Galaxy won the first leg 1-0 at the same stage of the competition.

Pirates won the second leg 1-0 but were knocked out on penalties by the Botswana champions.

‘2-0 is not a safe lead’ for Pirates

“Today we are sitting needing to find strength from losing 2-0 against Pirates at home,” said the Jwaneng coach after the match.

“We need to find reasons which will take us into the second leg and say how are we going to perform in the second leg. We have 90 minutes to play … I believe it was the first half, the second half can go either way.

“For those who understand the game, leading 2-0 is not a safe lead. We have the ability and capability to come back, we will come back.”

Mabasa magic for Pirates

Mabasa fired in the first goal for Pirates on the stroke of half time after a tight first half.

“My only disappointment is that they scored their opening goal in a critical phase of the match when we could have done better,” added Ramoreboli.

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“With the second goal, we wanted to score, and were putting a lot of pressure on them, unfortunately they got the ball in the net.

“If you play a big team like Orlando Pirates, and their substitutions had to be defenders, then you must know there’s something you’re doing (right) because they had to defend … for the better part of the second half.

“So for me, I will say, as much as I’m disappointed we didn’t win, I’m very proud of the players.”