Johannesburg - Orlando Pirates’ assistant coach Sergio Almenara says it was unfair to lose back-to-back to arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs this season, even though they were not at their best.
Chiefs first beat Pirates 1-0 in the Premiership earlier this season, before completing the league double with the same margin on Saturday.
While the winner in the reverse fixture was scored by Yusuf Maart for Chiefs, they needed an unfortunate own goal from substitute Olisa Ndah to win on Saturday.
Pirates were without coach Jose Riveiro at the Calabash as he was serving his final match suspension, leaving assistants Almenara and Mandla Ncikazi to carry out the coaching duties.
“We think that it was a bit unfair result in the first game even though it was not our best performance,” Almenara said. “So today it was basically the same thing.”
Pirates played the last 30 minutes with a man down after captain Innocent Maela was shown red for fouling Christian Saile who was through on goal.
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For Almenara, that red card changed the composition of the game as Chiefs duly capitalised on the numerical advantage, leading to the late mistake from Ndah.
“We tried to fight in the first minutes of the situation where we were a man down,” Almenara said. “So we think that if we had 11 players we would have got a better result.”
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Both Chiefs and Pirates are fighting for a top two finish on the log, which guarantees qualification for the coveted Caf Champions League football next season.
Currently, the two Soweto giants are both on 31 points as Pirates sit third spot on the log standings due to a superior goal difference while Chiefs are fifth.
IOL Sport