Orlando Pirates players’ minds were on Casablanca match – Zinnbauer

Orlando Pirates coach Josef Zinnbauer believes his charges were more concerned about their Caf Confederation Cup last eight clash against Raja Casablanca, than to focus on the league clash against Stellenbosch FC.

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This comes after Bucs drew 0-0 with Stellies in the DStv Premiership at the Danie Craven Stadium last Tuesday.

It wasn’t the best of games, nor performance for the Buccaneers, with the Cape side taking full advantage of the situation, but were unfortunate not to have found the back of the net.

Pirates are preparing to take Casablanca in the quarter-finals of the Caf Confed Cup at the Orlando Stadium over the weekend, their most important so far as they look to register their second trophy of the season after winning the domestic MTN8 Cup earlier this campaign.

“We have a big game on Sunday and maybe the players heads were also on the Sunday game. But that’s not the right way, we are supposed to first play this game and then concentrate on the Sunday game,” said the German born coach.

Ahead of this important fixture for the club, the Bucs coach is hoping to see some of his players who have been injured making their way back into full fitness.

“First we have to see for the next game who is available for us. We have a lot of injured players and we hope they come back and we have more competition.”

Meanwhile, Phakaaathi has already reported that Bucs will at least have their goalkeeper Richard Ofori back into the team after the Ghanaian for injured in March.

Experienced defender and club captain Happy Jele has missed the team’s last couple of games due an injury. Other players who are nursing injuries at the team include Thabang Monare, Tshegofatso Mabasa, Collins Makgaka, Terrence Dzukamanja to mention a few.

With a couple of days to go to the match, the Bucs coach will certainly be crossing his fingers to have a strong squad that will go up against the North Africans.

Casablanca are one of the big clubs in Africa with a rich history in continental football with three Caf Champions League trophies under their belt and one Confederation Cup among their trophies in the continent.