Orlando Pirates winger Luvuyo Memela has heaped praised on his side’s fighting spirit after going two goals behind against Bidvest Wits.

The Buccaneers went into half time trailing by two but fought back in the second half to score two goals and force the game into extra time.

Pirates managed to take the lead in the 105th minute through Zakhele Lepasa, but a stoppage-time equaliser from Gift Motupa moved the game to penalties.

However, the Soweto giants failed to secure their place in the last 16 and bowed out of the competition after eventually suffering a 3-2 loss on penalties at the Orlando Stadium.

‘I must say it was a good fight from the guys, we conceded two mistakes at the back. They got a penalty and they scored, it’s part of the game but I’m proud of the guys,’ Memela told SuperSport TV.

‘The coach spoke to us, he told us that this is not his team, so we need to fight and keep playing, don’t give up and that’s what we did, in the second half and extra time. You know penalties – you win some, you lose some. It wasn’t our day.

‘Nothing much, we were doing the same thing that we were doing, we just needed to up the tempo, because first half when we started the tempo was fine and as the game went on, we started to run with the ball a bit and not pass it quicker.

‘So when we changed the attacking position, we changed slow, so they could switch quick. What we did [in the second half] the coach told us we need to pass the ball quicker, so that we get the passing line and we attack from there. That’s what we did, we scored those goals from that.’