‘Painful’ Caf CL loss ‘was difficult to accept’ – Riveiro explains Pirates win over Galaxy

Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro insists ‘the painful exit’ from Caf Champions League in the second preliminary round, last season, motivated his team last weekend to post a positive result.

On Saturday, the Buccaneers managed to get a 2-0 win over Jwaneng Galaxy – who eliminated them in the 2023/24 edition, ahead of the second leg to be played on Saturday at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

A draw of any kind or a 1-0 loss will see Bucs make the group stage of the prestigious club competition.

It was difficult to accept Galaxy defeat

“It was painful to not go to the group stages last season and the reason why was [that] Jwaneng were better than us so we have again the opportunity to go to the group stage,” Riveiro told the media.

“More than the motivation we still know how difficult it is to play [in Botswana], how difficult is this field for a team like us, we know and as I said, it’s one year later we have one more year of experience together.

“Our players went through many different things after that game, we got eliminated from this competition in a way that was difficult to accept. We are here again after one year, now it’s easy to say with the result on our side that we did well.”

How did Orlando Pirates manage to beat Galaxy away?

“To play [at the National Stadium], it’s extremely difficult. It’s been a challenge one more time after one year, we know about the difficulty of playing Jwaneng, like I said before the match during the group stage how difficult they can be, especially playing at home,” the Spaniard continued.

“[On Saturday] was the proof, we got a good result, we managed to capitilise some good moments in the 90 minutes. It could be different as well, it could be that Jwaneng managed to find the net and we managed to double the lead. It’s a good result but it’s not over, not at all, still 90 minutes to play at least.”

Before playing the Batsawana outfit on Saturday, Bucs will face Chippa United in the Premier Soccer League outing on Wednesday.