The top-of-the-table clash played in front of more than 60¯000 spectators at FNB Stadium produced a result that could have a huge bearing on how the league title races shapes up.
Sundowns, who still have one game in hand, reduced Pirates’ lead to just three points, but Ouaddou says they keep on believing.”You know, in football, if you ask me that question when [there are] five games, I would agree with you, but with the number of games we still have, anything can happen,” said Ouaddou.
“And 13 games [left], for me we still have to work and give everything because you can have many surprises in football – and we have to fight until the end of the league.
“This is the message that I want to give – the PSL is a very good league with good teams, and we wanted to avoid this scenario [of losing to Sundowns], but it happened and it’s not the end of the world, we have to keep working and keep believing.”
When Brayan León opened the scoring for Sundowns in the 37th minute, Pirates players had still been appealing for a penalty, but Ouaddou refused to blame his players for switching off while referee Jelly Chavani allowed play to continue.
“The players today gave their best, of course we created chances again, but I don’t have anything today to reproach them, they all gave their best, especially in the second half to try and come back,” he added.
“If we have to help them, since the referee didn’t stop the game, the [lesson] is to keep working and keep focussing on the game, it’s nothing more I can say about that.
“If the referee didn’t decide to stop the game for the injury, we still have to keep going until the man in the centre of the pitch stops the game – he’s deciding, he’s the boss inside the game, and we have to trust him and keep playing.”