Orlando Pirates captain Innocent Maela insists it is unfair to compare the current generation to the one that reached the 2013 final but ended up losing to Al Ahly.
The Soweto giants have been doing well in the ongoing edition, and are so far the only unbeaten team. On Saturday, they will play Pyramids FC of Egypt in the first leg of the continental competition to be played at the FNB Stadium.
Bucs come into the match as the favourites owing to their record and quality seen throughout the ongoing season, both domestically and abroad. However, the experienced skipper believes it will not be okay to put the team in the same pot with the one that played 12 years ago.
‘This is a new dawn for Pirates' – Maela
“It's a bit unfair to compare different generations. We are a team that believes we're more than capable of winning. The togetherness and humbleness have brought us so far and those are the values we keep within the team,” he told the media.
“It's a new squad, a new dawn, and as long as we believe anything is possible. We've had our meetings and discussions as players, and we agreed it's time for us to put our attention on the competitions that we are competing in.
“We believe the time will come later on for all those moments [to celebrate Riveiro], for now, from the players' side, we need to put all our focus on applying ourselves perfectly in all the remaining games,” he concluded.
The game between Pyramids and Pirates will be played from 18.00 hours SAT.
