<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The South African (SA) giants secured a valuable away win under difficult conditions, with temperatures reaching between 35\u00b0C and 36\u00b0C during the match at the National Stadium.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pirates appeared well prepared for the challenging weather, with scheduled water breaks helping players cope with the intense heat. Coach Abdeslam Ouaddou said the club had anticipated the conditions well in advance and focused on preparing the squad mentally. “When we prepared for this game in the week, at the beginning of the week, our analysis department already told us that we would have 35 degrees, 36 degrees. So, we were prepared for that,” said Ouaddou.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I said to my boys that we are on a mission and soldiers who are going to the mission. We don’t care about the weather; it can be 40 degrees, it can be -10, we are going there to get results and to go through the next group stages.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ouaddou added that adapting to different environments is part of competing at the highest level on the continent. “Mentally we prepared the boys because you know when you play in the Champions League, you have to adapt to any condition and it’s part of the development of the boys, it’s part of football,” said Ouaddou.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Despite taking an advantage into the return leg, Ouaddou insisted the tie remains far from decided and warned against complacency ahead of next Friday’s second leg at Orlando Stadium. “I think we have succeeded in the first half of these two games; we still have the second half in SA. I cannot say that we have one foot in the group stages; we still have an important second half there,” said Ouaddou.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“We will have to prepare in order to go directly to the group stages. It’s an important target for the club; it’s an important target for the coaches and the players. We will be sure that we rest and start this game definitely to win it.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–SABCSport\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32906,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-48330","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Orlando Pirates moved closer to the CAF Champions League group stage with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Namibia's African Stars FC in the first leg of their qualifying tie in Gaborone, Botswana.","published_date":"","news_description":"Orlando Pirates moved closer to the CAF Champions League group stage with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Namibia's African Stars FC in the first leg of their qualifying tie in Gaborone, Botswana.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48333,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48330\/revisions\/48333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}