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Palacios explains controversial subs

Cape Town - Orlando Pirates head coach Augusto Palacios reveals he took Mpho Makola and Thabo Rakhale in the second half to bring on more options upfront and try force a goal.

The Bucs were beaten 1-0 in the Telkom Knockout by SuperSport United on Saturday and, while chasing the game, Palacios introduced two strikers, Thamsanqa Gabuza and Bernard Morrison, for Makola and Rakhale, which did not prove to be a popular decision with many fans in the stadium.

However, the Pirates mentor insists it was a call he had to make as they were desperate for a goal in order to avoid being eliminated from the competition.

"You losing 1-0, you need to put the pressure upfront, so put Gabuza with Ndoro and after this we needed to put Morrison on, another striker, to have three in front," he said after the game.

"But it's part of football, good luck to SuperSport, they made it to the final. But I say the players did everything, but it was not our night."

Palacios feels his side had the better of the game, despite finishing with 10 men after Thabo Matlaba picked up a late yellow card and feels they were made to pay for not being clinical enough up front.

"We 10 men, we continued attacking, we never resigned to the attack and that's part of football," he added.

"Part of football is scoring goals, and SuperSport had once chance, and we know they are going to do this , we control most of the game but I say again, if we don't score, we don't win the game."

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