Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has dismissed the notion that the Buccaneers have an advantage going into the second leg of the MTN8 semi-finals against Mamelodi Sundowns on Saturday.
Bucs and the Brazilians played to an entertaining goalless draw in the first leg at the Orlando Stadium and this means that any scoring draw would favour Pirates. But on the flip side of the coin, Sundowns can be ruthless, and they are capable of burying the Buccaneers with an avalanche of goals. On Saturday, there has to be a winner, if there is no result after 90 minutes, it will go to extra time and then penalty shoot-outs if there is still a deadlock.
“About the away goal, we will approach it like any other game. An away goal can be an important factor at the end of the match. But we need to score a goal. So, there is no advantage for anyone. It is zero to zero for now and both teams will be looking for the advantage,” said the 45-year-old Spaniard.
“We are so happy with the way the players are performing, not just in this competition but also in training, let’s see if they can keep the structure that we are going to use – football is flexible in terms of ways to approach and find the spaces, meaning we can use different players in different roles. We are not thinking about them, they are a team that is used to playing these kinds of games regularly and they have lots of experienced players and quality.
“We know the size of the challenge that we are going to face on Saturday. We are just focusing on things that we can control and we want to have one more preparation – and to keep the level of confidence we have at the moment. The previous experience facing Sundowns 20 days ago will be a different story – that game was a quality game with two good teams that were well-prepared and with the ambition to be in the final and to win more trophies for the club. I think it’s going to be similar and both teams will want to dominate,” Riveiro added.
“I only focus on the next game; I do not worry about the past because the past is not going to play this game. There are many interesting things about the coming game and not from the past games. I am happy with the group of players – we played about 14 matches, and we have already used about 25 different players in the starting eleven. Sometimes we need to rotate our squad and learn more about the level and the quality of the players. I am happy with the things that they are showing me and the combinations,” he explained further.
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