By Michael Madyira
The Buccaneers were booted out by Botswana side Jwaneng Galaxy on Friday via a penalty shootout after a 1-1 aggregate scoreline.
They won 1-0 at home but that was not enough to overturn a 1-0 suffered away in Gaborone two weeks ago.
Premier Soccer League big guns have been measuring their strengths through playing in continental competitions and Pirates failed that test.
Despite being Cup kings last season, failure in the Champions League left their credentials being questioned.
“There’s not much to decode about the game,” said Pirates coach Jose Riveiro after the match.
“It’s a difficult game to explain from the scoring perspective. The guys’ performance tonight was more than enough to drive us to the group stages.
“But for reasons that are difficult to explain at this moment straight after the game, we couldn’t make it in the 90 minutes and then in the penalties, anything could happen.
“It’s part of the game, something that we have to do better. We started with a 1-0 disadvantage, I don’t know how we could not score more goals.
“We have to dominate as well and today we couldn’t.”
After a pre-season in Spain where they showed a lot of promise, much was expected from Pirates in Africa.
What’s left for the Buccaneers is the MTN 8, Carling Cup, Nedbank Cup and the PSL title where they face the stern challenge from log leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
Pictured above: Orlando Pirates attacker Karim Kimvuidi against Jwaneng Galaxy
Image source: Orlando Pirates
