Pirates should have won clash says Ouaddou

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou felt his side should have come away with all three points from Saturday’s Betway Premiership ‘classico’ against champions Mamelodi Sundowns, which ended in a 1-1 stalemate at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Pirates fought back after conceding a 20th minute goal to Peter Shalulile to end Sundowns’ 18-match winning streak at home in the league.

Camren Dansin’s spectacular 35th minute equaliser left Pirates still three points behind Sundowns in the league standings but with two games in hand.

“We started slowly, Sundowns put us in trouble in terms of building, they managed to find the free player in the middle,” said Ouaddou in his synopsis of the game.

”We had a problem with (Marcelo) Allende, Nuno Santos, (Bathusi) Aubaas in the middle, because they were trying to overload, which we had prepared for, but I thought that we were not aggressive enough to prevent them from the building.

“But we made some changes in order to be more dangerous in the transitions. And it worked because we created the most chances and I was so happy about the second half, the way that we played and how we respected the game plan.

“To be honest, I think it's a game that we should have won regarding the number of chances that we have created. And today, I think, to be honest, it should be a victory for Orlando Pirates,” Ouaddou said.

“But let's go home with this point. Let's not be too tough on our boys. They did well. And let's go to fight for the next games that we had in hand and let's go to take the lead of this league,” he added.