'We are still alive', Bucs’ Riveiro warns Baroka

Sihle Ndebele Sports journalist
Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro.
Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro.
Image: Veli Nhlapo

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro views tomorrow's Nedbank Cup last 16 tie against second-tier side Baroka at Orlando Stadium as an opportunity to prove that Bucs “are still alive”, after a 4-1 thumping by Mamelodi Sundowns in Tshwane last Saturday.

“Once we manage, hopefully, to go to the next round, we'll feel much better about ourselves. It's an important game to show that we're still alive. It's going to be needed much more this season to move Pirates out of the road because it's not going to be possible, let's put it that way,'' Riveiro said.

Kickoff is 3pm at Orlando Stadium tomorrow.

Once we manage, hopefully, to go to the next round, we'll feel much better about ourselves. It's an important game to show that we're still alive
Jose Riveiro

Riveiro emphasised that his troops were looking sharp after the heavy defeat at the hands of Sundowns, narrating how they've been going about their business this week to get ready for Bakgaka.

“They [players] are looking well, I'd say. We went through a tough week in terms of the level of the games and the level of the opponents that we faced in a short space of time. We didn't finish that week the way we wanted in Pretoria, so the beginning of the week was more about rest and recovering the players from the conditioning and physical perspective,” the Pirates coach stated.

“I think mentally as well, we did a good job, trying to understand together what happened on the day ... why couldn't we be as good as we'd have loved in a game like that? It was a good reflection from our side to understand what happened [when they lost 4-1 to Sundowns] and move to the next one.”

Even so, Riveiro made it clear they weren't obsessing about bouncing back strongly versus Baroka after the Sundowns humiliation.

“If I say now that we're doing or preparing something special because we lost last week, it'd mean we are reacting after one defeat. We are not a reactive team and we're running our own race,'' Riveiro said.

Fixtures

Tonight: Durban v Galaxy, Chatsworth (7pm)

Tomorrow: Gallants v AmaZulu, Dr Petrus Molemela (3pm); Pirates v Baroka, Orlando (3pm); Chiefs v Chippa, FNB (6pm)

Sunday: Sundowns v Mpheni, Loftus Versfeld (3pm).


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