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Orlando Pirates v FC Djabal

De Sa: Can he steer Bucs to glory?

De Sa: Can he steer Bucs to glory?

Orlando Pirates will take the first step to emulating the famous Bucs side of 1995 if they can overcome FC Djabal over two legs.

Pirates became the first South African side to claim the African Cup of Champions Clubs - as it was known from 1964 to 1997 - when they defeated the Ivory Coast's ASEC Mimosas 3-2 on aggregate.

But they have struggled to make their mark in the competition since then - now renamed the CAF Champions League - with a number of local managers seeing the competition as a distraction from their domestic efforts - including Pirates boss Roger De Sa when at Bidvest Wits.

This weekend though De Sa will attempt to rectify that situation when his charges face the little known Comoros side at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday ahead of their away leg on March 1st.

And leading up to the match he said: "At Pirates, with that one star [from 1995] on their badge, they want a second one - and to prove they can win the continent.

"At Pirates they see this as a challenge and they always want to go as far as possible and win as many games as we can in Africa."

Club captain Lucky Lekgwhati admits to knowing virtually nothing about their upcoming opponents but is nevertheless confident they can emerge victorious.

He told the club's official website: "FC Djabal are a closed book, there's not much that we know of this team apart from the fact that they are from the Comoros.

"Closed book or not, we are going to prepare for this game like it was a cup final. We are not going to underestimate them and definitely, this time around we will be ready for them."

He added: "Last time we were in this situation we took our opposition very lightly, but this time around we will be more than ready for what our visitors will throw at us.

"Our victory over (SuperSport) United was what we needed ahead of our match on Saturday. The morale in the team is great, the spirit is high and everybody is buzzing in anticipation of this encounter."

Last season Pirates lost 4-2 on aggregate in the preliminary round against Recreativo do Libolo of Angola.

Posted: 16/02/13 08:51

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