Ouaddou surprised by Ben Youssef’s approach as Orlando Pirates overcome Durban City

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou said he was taken aback by Durban City’s aggressive approach before his side recovered to win 2-0 on Thursday evening.

The Buccaneers secured victory at the Orlando Amstel Arena through second-half goals from Lebone Seema and Tshepang Moremi.

Durban City made a forceful start and put Orlando Pirates under sustained pressure during the opening half. Ouaddou admitted his team struggled to cope with the intensity before making tactical changes at the interval.

“Look, I think we were a bit surprised by the aggressiveness of Durban but at the same time we had spoken about that, it’s their fighting spirit, they’re used to play like that so we were not comfortable in the first half to be honest,” Ouaddou told SuperSport after the match.

He said Durban City had deserved to take a substantial lead before half-time, with goalkeeper Sipho Chaine’s performance preventing further damage.

“I think in the first half we deserved- Durban deserved to score at least 2-0 and thanks to Sipho Chaine that really saved the team and after we went into halftime and made some tactical adjustments.”

Ouaddou also revealed that Orlando Pirates had prepared to face a back four rather than the back five used by Durban City.

“I think we were surprised by this back-five, we thought they would come with a back-four, but we made this adjustment and I think the second half was just fantastic to the referees. For me, one of the best second halves that we played since now.”

The changes allowed Orlando Pirates to impose their preferred style after the break. The team played with greater forward intent, used the spaces between the lines and created opportunities through third-man runs.

Moremi and Seema ultimately provided the decisive moments, with Orlando Pirates also scoring from set-pieces as they turned the match around.

“The players played the football we want, playing forward, -between the lines, we found the third-man running between the space and we scored in the set-pieces, so the second half was really perfect and credit has to be given to the boys.”