Ouaddou dreams of Pirates’ second star after personal CAF milestone

Pirates had won the first leg of the second preliminary round 1-0 in Botswana last weekend, and they advanced to the group stages having won 5-0 on aggregate. Ouaddou and his team fell short of making it to the group stages last season, after they were eliminated by St Eloi Lupopo of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but last night history was made...

"Progressing to the group stages of the CAF Champions League is a first for me and I think it will be an exciting challenge for me and for us as a team."

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A brace from Evidence Makgopa and goals from Thapelo Mokobodi and Mpho “ Phopho” Padime were enough to send a dominant Pirates to their seventh group-stage since this format was introduced in 1996. Ouaddou says they were too strong for the Namibian side...

"Although we scored two goals in the first half, we did not have the control I wanted and maybe that was due to some stress because I do have one of the youngest teams in South Africa so it's normal and we have to work on how we manage the emotions. 

"The second half was simply perfect and we were superior to African Stars, but credit to them for testing us."

Pirates last won the CAF Champions League title in 1995 and were runners-up in 2013 and semi-finalists in 2006 and 2024. Ouaddou says the club can now start to dream again of the second star.

Makgopa, who recently recovered from an injury that sidelined him from the beginning of the season, opened his account in the 2026/2027 campaign scoring in both halves of this game. 

Ouaddou was happy to see the Bafana Bafana striker add his name to the scoresheet and says he returns at the perfect time when they are in the group stages, and they will now have a variety of strikers for all competitions...