“Of course, it’s not the result we expected," said the Moroccan coach.

Abdeslam Ouaddou, head coach of Orlando Pirates, was frustrated with how his side had started the 2025/26 league campaign.
This is after the Buccaneers suffered a 2-1 loss to Marumo Gallants, their second defeat in as many games this season after they lost 1-0 to Sekhukhune United in their opening league game last weekend.
READ MORE: Clifford nets late winner as Pirates suffer back-to-back defeats
“Of course, it’s not the result we expected. We came here with a lot of ambition to take these three points that we lost at home,” Ouaddou told SuperSport TV.
“We started very well the game, opening the score and creating a lot of chances again that we didn’t put in the net and like I said when you don’t score, you give the opponents an opportunity to finish you.
“So yeah, it’s a big disappointment that we start very bad but we’ll sit and we’ll think about that.”
‘We’ll come back stronger’
Ouaddou added that he and his technical team will go back to the drawing board to analyse what went wrong in Bloemfontein and try to fix.
“We are going to analyse the game and to see what’s going wrong especially in the second half. We tried to make some changement (changes) to bring some fresh blood, unfortunately the changement that we did, didn’t give us what we expect from them. It was about their level.
“So yeah, it’s a big disappointment but we’re going to sit, to analyse and to come back stronger,” commented Ouaddou.
Pirates will face Mamelodi Sundowns in an MTN8 semifinal first leg clash at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday, and Ouaddou hopes that whatever issues they have are sorted before the game.
The Brazilians will come into this game in Orlando high on confidence following their morale-boosting 2-0 victory against AmaZulu at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday night.
READ MORE: Sundowns down AmaZulu to record first win in the league
They will therefore be the favourites to win against the Buccaneers on Saturday.