Pirates failed to defend, says Segolela

Tlou Segolela says he knows exactly where Orlando Pirates went wrong against Recreativo do Libolo.

Pirates lost 3-1 to Libolo on Sunday in their first CAF Champions League match, and Segolela said that was mainly because of the team’s failure to deal effectively with the Angolan’s deadly counterattacks.

Pirates now face an uphill battle when they travel to Angola for the second leg on the weekend of March 2-4.

Segolela said he and his team-mates only have themselves to blame after failing to live up to the expectations of their fans, who expected nothing less than a victory after all the preparations they had put in during the build-up to the match.

“I am not happy with the result at all. We are all not happy because everyone was expecting us to put up a better fight,” Segolela said.

“It is never a nice feeling to lose, especially at home but we have ourselves to blame for that. We lost the game because we failed to cope whenever they used the counterattack.”

The winger explains that Pirates were so desperate to score first that they lost sight of their game plan.

“It was important for us to score first and they knew that we would try to do that so they just kept their shape at the back and used counter-attacks whenever we lost possession,” he said.

“He also concedes that the result makes it very hard for the Julio Leal-coached side to turn the tables in the second leg.”

“Yes, it will be hard but we cannot give up. Football is a funny game so people should not rule us out yet.”