Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro admits his charges did suffer against Cape Town City, but feels the second leg the will be tight.
With the return-leg on Saturday, it's advantage the Buccaneers in terms of the away-goal rule and just need a goalless draw to progress to the final.
READ | Pirates leave Cape Town with slight advantage
An interesting second-leg awaits, as the Spaniard laments how his charges lost control in the second half and allowed Eric Tinkler's men to comeback.
Pirates were in the lead at halftime through Relebohile Mofokeng, but the Citizens hit back a few minutes in the second half courtesy of Jaedin Rhodes.
"One half for each team, clearly the first one I think not even for us 100% percent," Riveiro told SuperSport TV.
"I think it was slightly better, I think Pirates in the first half (had) more control, more clear what to do. We suffered maybe, it's true that Cape Town see the post two times in the first half but it was more our mistakes than Cape Town was creating.
"I think in the second half we lost control in the first maybe 15-20 minutes until they scored, we couldn't contain them.
"We were defending too low, not really doing what we wanted and we couldn't manage to stop them until they scored.
"But I think even late in the game, we had a couple of opportunities to get more advantage. 1-1, it's going to be tight on Saturday."