Orlando Pirates’ Happy Jele has revealed the actions taken by the club in order to prepare for their CAF Champions League trip to Windhoek, with Bucs on the brink of the group stages.
Pirates know that a win in Windhoek, or even a score draw, will see them progress into the into next of the CCL, with Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic eager to see his side continue to show their strengths in Africa’s biggest club competition.
Jele put in a good shift in the first leg against African Stars – a 0-0 draw – including a potentially tie saving challenge as he expertly cut down one of Stars’ attacks.
Now, with the second leg on the horizon this weekend, Jele says that they have confidence in themselves to get the job done.
Jele told the club’s official website that they have changed their training schedule in order to accommodate the game, saying, “We have been training at the Nike Centre in Soweto this week in order to acclimatise to the conditions because we know the match will be played on astroturf and in extremely hot conditions. We have done all we can to prepare adequately and now all that is left is to go and get the job done.”
He went on to say, “Ideally we would have preferred to win the match at home convincingly but we played against a good defensive side. They were compact and well organised at the back.
“It is true we missed a lot of chances and that is regrettable but the flip side of that is that we played positive attacking football despite the defensive block we had to contend with. The fact that we were able to create chances tells us that it is possible to penetrate their defence and that is what we are preparing for.”
Meanwhile, the experienced defender, one of the few left over from Pirates’ previous CAF exploits, concluded, “We know it won’t be a walk in the park but we are prepared to fight and do whatever it takes to come out tops here.”
