Riveiro insists it’s not over yet at CAF Champions League

Orlando Pirates’ Jose Riveiro has insisted that they are not yet home and dry in their CAF Champions League second preliminary round tie against Botswana champions Jwaneng Galaxy, despite beating them 2-0 in Gaborone yesterday. 

Tshegofatso Mabasa and Deon Hotto scored the goals that saw Pirates walk away with the victory in the first leg at Gaborone National Stadium over the weekend. The second leg is at Orlando Stadium on Saturday, but Pirates’ focus now is on their first Betway Premiership game of the 2024/25 season against Chippa United at home as well on Wednesday (7.30pm).

“It’s a good result but it’s not over, not at all! There’s still 90 minutes to play in Orlando. We still have to play our first game in the league. Today we celebrate for a couple of hours, tomorrow [yesterday] we are preparing for Chippa. After Chippa, we will turn back to Jwaneng again,” Riveiro said after the game in Gaborone on Saturday.

Jwaneng elbowed Pirates out of the Champions League in the same phase last season and Riveiro conceded that hurt them, implying it also motivated them to make sure they avoid that this time around. The Pirates coach also told how his team has grown since last season’s upset by Jwaneng.

“If I say that we don’t care, I’d be lying. It was painful not to go to the group stages last season. The reason was that Jwaneng was better than us. Now we have the opportunity to go to the group stage. More than motivation, it is to know how difficult it is to play here on this field for a team like us,” Riveiro said.

“It’s one year later, our players went through many different phases after that game... it was difficult to accept the elimination but if you look back, you’ll see that immediately after the elimination from the Champions League we were able to win the MTN8 final against Sundowns and that was a great way to come back.”

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