From dream to disaster: Pirates face mission impossible in Africa

ORLANDO Pirates’ CAF Champions League ambitions hang by a thread after a humbling 3-0 defeat to St Eloi Lupopo in Lubumbashi.

- SMISO MSOMI

For a side that had strung together ten straight wins in all competitions, this was a sobering reminder of how quickly momentum can evaporate on the continent. The Buccaneers were simply second best in every department despite being the favourites having made the semifinals of the competition last season.

Outfought, outpaced, and outmanoeuvred, they now find themselves needing one of the greatest comebacks in their proud history to avoid an early and humiliating exit from Africa's premier club competition.

Lupopo’s intensity and physicality proved too much for Abdeslam Ouaddou’s men, who looked uncharacteristically nervous and disjointed.