While the Al Ahly win ensures the Bucs have a foot in the Caf final, they know the next one will to take some doing.
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Johannesburg – The celebrations were somewhat muted, Eric Tinkler merely shaking hands with the bench and a few of the players going down on their knees and giving thanks to the one above – and with good reason, too.
For while this victory ensures Pirates have one foot in the Caf Confederation final, they know only too well that getting the second one over the line is going to take some doing.
Keeping a clean sheet in Egypt next weekend will require much more than the good saves Filipe Ovono pulled off here, and the last-ditch tackles that saw the likes of Rooi Mahamutsa and Ayanda Gcaba stop Ahly attacks in their tracks.
In their own backyard, Ahly are unlikely to be as flat as they were in the first half here but will rather force Pirates on to the back-foot as they did in the second stanza – and they will probably do so from the onset.
But having kept the defending champions at bay, Pirates can approach the second leg with some confidence and belief they can overcome the Red Devils in Suez next Sunday.
To do that they need only play with the ferocity and swagger that saw them dominate the first half, but they must add to that a killer instinct in the final third. A little of that here last night and the scoreline could have been much more convincing than the solitary goal advantage they will take to north Africa.
South African teams and ruthlessness, though, are like railway lines – destined never to meet.
At the beginning of the match, you got the impression Pirates totally understood the need to render this semifinal tie a no-contest by the end of the 90 minutes as they began with purposeful attacks.
But that attitude only lasted a quarter of an hour.
Early on, Kermit Erasmus harassed Hany Eldemerdash and quickly Pirates appeared to spot a weakness on the visitors’ right side. And with Thabo Matlaba pushing up, Pirates always looked dangerous when they attacked on the left.
The two then combined for Erasmus to deliver a dangerous ball across the face of goal, but Thamsanqa Gabuza could not connect.
There was no such escape for the visitors on nine minutes, a replica of the earlier move seeing Gabuza simply tap the ball past Ahmed Ekramy into the net for the opening goal.
Ten minutes later, Pirates almost went 2-0 up but Ekramy did well to parry over an Mpho Makola free-kick from the edge of the box after Gabuza was hacked down.
Yet, instead of piling on the pressure in search of a second goal, Pirates went into their shell and this allowed Ahly to dominate from the 20th minute.
While they had initially looked to be a shadow of the side renowned as the continent’s best, Ahly showed some neat touches during this period as they knocked the ball about purposely and punched holes through the Bucs rearguard. They looked particularly dangerous attacking from the wings, the high balls they knocked into the box troubling Pirates.
One of those, on 25 minutes, gave the home side a mighty scare as Abbas Eldawy bumped into Ovono, leaving the Bucs keeper sprawled on the pitch in pain.
Without a natural reserve keeper on the bench, coach Tinkler and everyone associated with the Buccaneers held their collective breath as the medical team treated Ovono for two and a half minutes.
The Equatorial Guinea number one was not badly hurt, though, and was quickly doing a great job keeping Pirates in the lead.
An excellent build-up by Ahly saw Matlaba skinned before Sobhi Ahmed hit a shot that Ovono could only tip on to the upright. The ball ricocheted into play and Ntsikelelo Nyauza did excellently to clear just in time to deny Eldawy a header into the open net.
Expectedly, Ahly returned from the break full of fire and forced Pirates onto the back foot for most of the 45 minutes but failed to make their dominance count.
Abd El Moneim was allowed a free shot on the edge of the box but sent the ball way over without troubling Ovono.
Then Duku Antwi worked his magic to get into the box, but Pirates did well to clear, with Mahamutsa livid at his teammates for allowing the opposition to put the defence under pressure.
Bucs will have to deal with similar pressure in the second leg, but most importantly though, they will need to score to be sure of progression to the final.
Orlando Stadium
Orlando Pirates: (1) 1
Gabuza 9
Al Ahly: 0
– THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
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