We will give everything – Abdeslam Ouaddou as title race hots up

The Buccaneers were again ruthless when they beat struggling Magesi 3-0 at the Peter Mokaba Stadium to close the gap with Mamelodi Sundowns to just two points and still have a game in hand. 

Speaking on Saturday night, Ouaddou said his charges know that winning their remaining fixtures will guarantee they are champions.

"We are focused on ourselves you know, the destiny is between our feet. We just focus on how we want to play, and how organised we want to be. You can see a strong Pirates - we don't concede a goal and we score goals, so I just said to the boys focus on how we want to play. We don't expect nothing from nobody."

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The coach added it was crucial to break down Magesi early to avoid labouring throughout the 90 minutes. 

Ouaddou also reacted to goalkeeper Sipho Chaine’s record 19 clean sheets, which surpasses the milestone previously held by his Sundowns counterpart Ronwen Williams. 

"I'm very proud of Sipho. He is one of the best goalkeepers in Africa, not only in the country. He helps our team a lot and you can see that he has a lot of experience. He talks to his teammates and he is one of the captains on the field.

"As a coach, it's so important to have players you can rely on, and I give him credit for that but I also give credit to all the team because everyone is working to get the clean sheets."

The Pirates mentor singled out attacker Patrick Maswanganyi as well, who scored his eighth goal of the season against Magesi.

"When he plays in that position, I think that's what we expect from him. I'm proud of him because he tried to find his feet with all the intensity that we ask from him. At the beginning of the season, maybe the way I want to play was a little bit of high intensity, but now he gets it and knows exactly what the expectation is."