Riveiro dreaming of the Champions League but first the Nedbank Cup final

Orlando Pirates are favourites to qualify for the Champions League next season and coach Jose Riveiro is relishing the opportunity of mixing it up with the big boys on the continent. 

With two matches remaining in the season, Pirates have a two-point advantage over third-placed SuperSport United and a win over Sekhukhune United on Saturday will bring them closer to a return to the tournament. 

After the 2-1 extra-time win over Kaizer Chiefs on Sunday to qualify for the Nedbank Cup final against either Stellenbosch or Sekhukhune United, Riveiro said his players have enjoyed the recent short turnaround of matches. 

“Hopefully it is going to be our situation next season to play regularly because players like to play,” he said. 

“If you ask the players, they will tell you that they would rather be playing every three days than playing less. Especially when you are at this moment of the season. 

“In the beginning of the season, it is different because you need to implement things, do adaptations and some of the players are struggling with physical conditioning. 

“Even for us as coaches, we just want to play and the team is now in a good space but we understand that next season is going to be like that with long trips and short times to rest. 

“If you can play three games it is fine, is good for the fans and you can manage to have decent rhythm in the game for the players because the risk for injuries is not that high. 

“It is also good for us the coaches because we have enough time to have an influence in the games but two days is not good enough. There are physiological reasons that support my opinion in this case but we don’t complain. 

“In case that we didn't get the results in his game against Chiefs, I was not going to come here and say we didn’t have time to prepare because there are no excuses.” 

Looking back at the win over Pirates, Riveiro was proud of his players. 

“I am the proud coach and not the winning coach because I don’t win games, I am proud of the people who are working with me, the players that I am trying to lead in the best way possible. 

“I am extremely happy with their performance today, a proper performance in a knockout game and with moments where the team that we played did well early in the game until we got the lead. 

“After getting the lead we didn’t control the game the way we wanted, something we need to do better, but at the same time I understand it is not easy. 

“We faced an excellent team in terms of conditional capacity, they are a strong and physical team and it is difficult to control them when the game is going through duels.”