Ouaddou and Pirates smarter ahead of away leg against African Stars

The Buccaneers meet the Namibian champions at the National Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana, tomorrow afternoon. 

Pirates were eliminated in this stage of the competition last season, losing on penalties after the tie had finished 3-all. 

They had lost 3-0 away and won by the same margin at home. Ouaddou talks about a smarter approach coming to this game.

"Very important for us because I always said that you have to take lessons from the experience, like I said last season of course everybody gave their maximum to go through the stage but like the captain said you have to adapt to the environment,” Ouaddou said.

“You have to travel, you have to be more smart as well, play the game with more cleverness because the Champions League is another environment. It's another competition, it's another profile of the players, the way that teams are playing is different from the PSL and when I say that I speak not only in terms of physicality.

“So, for us it will be important to change the way that we manage these kinds of games and we have to simply take a lesson and to be more smarter to manage those kinds of games."

READ: Da Cruz’s approach against a hungry Red Arrows in the Copperbelt

Africans Stars are not an easy team, and they proved that in the previous round when they progressed to this stage on an away goal rule after playing to a 3-all draw against the Gabonese side Mangasport, having lost the leg 3-1 in Libreville. Ouaddou says they have prepared very well for them.

"It's a game, of course that is very important for us. We prepared very well, although we had very, very heavy fixtures but for us it's an important appointment against a very good team, the champions of Namibia,” the coach added.

“We know that to be able to go through that stage and to win in South Africa against Mangasport after a long, long travel, it means a lot for us. It means that this team has quality experienced players. 

“For us it's really important to have some freshness to start that game and of course the target is to manage that game."