Abdeslam Ouaddou says Soweto Derby was like a 'karate' duel not football

Abdeslam Ouaddou says Soweto Derby was like a 'karate' duel not football

The game was fiercely contested from the start with Bafana Bafana winger Tshepang Moremi stretchered off with the match ending in a 1-1 stalemate.

Ouaddou took aim at the physicality that Kaizer Chiefs brought to the encounter, admitting that his team lost the "battle in the middle".

"I think that, in terms of duels, we lost that battle of fighting in the middle – there are some games like that, unfortunately, and I think sometimes it was even a little bit on the red line," the Pirates mentor said.

"And I think sometimes, if we want to give nice football for the fans – and I think the South African fans deserve it, when I see the quality of the organisation of one of the biggest derbies in the world, we must protect the players who are willing to play football.

"Because what I have seen today, I don't know if I can say I have seen a football game or karate today, and I don't want to disrespect other sport, but today was not a football game."

Ouaddou believes there was a deliberate plan to counter the flair players in his team, such as Moremi, Relebohile Mofokeng and Oswin Appollis.

"Everybody is willing to play some nice football and there are some people that have to protect the players as well, and when I saw our three ball players – Mofokeng, Appollis, Moremi – were targeted, not to take the ball by the rules but to break their legs," he added.

"This is something that I cannot accept in football, and I think if I have to go deep in the game, our first half was not what we wanted to achieve in terms of football because of a team that came not to play football but to destroy and break the legs of our players.

"This is what we have seen today, and it's very sad for football, it's very sad for a fantastic derby because people came to watch fantastic football."

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