Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou admitted he could not afford to rest his starting stars against Stellenbosch on Tuesday ahead of his sides MTN8 semi-final second leg against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
The Buccaneers claimed their first win of the 2025/26 Betway Premiership campaign with a 1-0 win over Stellies at Orlando Stadium and advanced to 11th place on the standings courtesy of a sumptuous strike from Kamogelo Sebelebele.
In the position that we had, of course you have to think of priorities. Our priority today is to take three points and to at least start to open the season. Of course, you can imagine that we have a very important game on Saturday but in football sometimes there are some priorities. We were not in the position that we can afford to fit to the next game because today was very important to win and to start our season, said Ouaddou, speaking after the game.