Riveiro banks on experience to eliminate minnows Dondol

“Happy” Orlando Pirates tactician Jose Riveiro has given a sense Buccaneers are beginning to look like a finished article, aiming to utilise their purple patch to clinch the Nedbank Cup.

Pirates face third-tier's giant killers Dondol Stars in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal at Peter Mokaba Stadium tomorrow (3pm). The Sea Robbers are going into this fixture oozing confidence after garnering five successive victories across both the league and the same competition.

“It’s not only about the results, I think. What we are expressing on the field recently and how competitive we are tells you [that] we're in good space right now. The figures [meaning their recent stats] are excellent. Sometimes you get the results but that's only the results... you don't get the results and there's nothing else,'' Riveiro told the media at PSL headquarters in Parktown yesterday.

"We want to get the results through our identity, what we try to express as a collective. I am a happy coach... happy with the last results. I think this last stages of the Nedbank Cup have come at the right moment for us... we want to show on Saturday that we really want to go all the way.''

The Spaniard expects a tricky encounter against Dondol, who have already knocked out Premiership sides SuperSport United and AmaZulu out of this tournament. Even so, Riveiro banks on the experience they gained when they faced two lower division sides in All Stars and Venda Football Academy in the previous rounds of this competition.

"We know it's going to be complicated. We have experience already in the Nedbank to deal with teams from lower leagues. We know how difficult it is to get the result in ninety minutes [after winning in extra time against Venda]. We are not thinking much about the division Dondol are playing in.

Riveiro also opened up about the difficulty of managing the expectations. "When you are working for a club like Pirates, the expectations are always high. Everybody expects us to go to the next round. For all of you [members of the media] we've already won that game, that's the difficult part being a big club, people say you've already won when the game hasn't even started,'' said the Pirates coach.