Former Orlando Pirates striker Andries Sebola believes his former side will need to score three goals without conceding on Sunday if they want to progress into the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup.
Pirates are up against unbeaten Moroccan giants Raja Casablanca in the first installment of their two-legged quarter-final battle at Orlando Stadium.
Sebola says the Buccaneers must be on the offensive and win convincingly because the North African teams always deploy a subdued approach to games away from home and then rely on finishing the job when they get back home.
“Pirates are hosting at home, they have to use that advantage and grab as many goals as they can,” Sebola tells KickOff.com.
“A win is an advantage for them to move to the semi-final. So that’s the only thing I can say about Pirates. Even though there’s chopping and changing in their line-ups because of the congestion in the league games and also the Confederation Cup, Zinnbauer is trying by all means to rest some of the guys so that they can be recuperated. It’s just unfortunate that we need results as Buccaneers.
“I know the Morrocans, I’ve played against them so many times, they are the same as the Arabs. They are very strong, they know how to defend. The only thing that Pirates must do is to put more strikers. Don’t play a 4-3-3 formation that doesn’t have a striker up front.”
“Start with Tshegofatso Mabasa. Put guys that can deliver the crosses for him. Because what matters most now is the goals. We don’t care about how you play. The only thing we care about is to get results and goals.
“Raja, they will come to defend. They are more as the same as the Chinese. But when they are playing at home they attack. So us here we have to attack them and score more goals. Let them grab three goals, they mustn’t concede. Because conceding will give Raja Casablanca the chance to come back.
“They will use the away-goal rule. So Pirates must score three goals and defend. That’s the only thing they will have to do.”
Sebola does have a strong point and the idea would be to put themselves in a good position ahead of the return leg. Should Pirates claim a win on home turf, depending on the score-line, all they need will be to score at least one or two goals in the return leg next week.