Pirates aiming to tame Simba in Soweto

Orlando Pirates will look to overturn a narrow deficit against Simba in the second leg of their Caf Confederation Cup quarterfinal tie at the Orlando Stadium on Sunday.

Kick-off is at 6pm CAT (SA, GMT+2) live on SuperSport.

The Buccaneers lost 1-0 to the Lions in Dar-es-Salaam last Sunday after the hosts were awarded a controversial penalty, which was converted by Shomari Kapombe in the 68th minute.

Pirates had their own appeals for a spot-kick waved away by the referee, who didn't review the incident on the pitch-side monitor as VAR was apparently not working at the time.

Bucs co-coach Mandla Ncikazi was critical of the officiating in the first leg and insisted that VAR will be functioning properly when the Tanzanian champions arrive in Soweto.

"We did not deserve to lose, the officials caused us to lose," Ncikazi said in his post-match press conference. "We wanted to control the game ... stay compact, play on the counter but in the second half we thought there was an opportunity.

"We wanted to score here but you have seen the game, it didn't go the way we planned but we still have an opportunity in South Africa and VAR will be working, we will make sure it works."

Simba head coach Pablo Franco feels the clean sheet has given them an advantage, but acknowledged that their away form in the competition hasn't been good enough and they will be looking to change that when they travel to South Africa.

Franco's side failed to win any of their three away games in the group stages, with their best result a 1-1 draw against USGN in Niger on matchday two.

"Of course, when you are playing a first-leg game and you are winning and not conceding goals it's a good advantage, but we know here especially on the African continent how difficult it is to play away," Franco told the press after the first-leg clash.

"We know also the quality of our opponent, it's a great team. We know their performance at home is going to be better and we also know that this factor is clear that so far in this competition we were not competitive enough when we played away.

"The result on the day is good but with the factors we have to handle, I think it's not enough unless we change that and this is what we'll do this week towards being more competitive and go there with a good plan, try to score one goal because then the game is going to be more difficult for them."