Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has heaped praise on his players after they trashed Madagascan side Disciples FC 4-0 at Orlando Stadium in the first preliminary round to advance to the next round of the CAF Champions League.
The teams drew 0-0 in the first leg played in Mauritius last Sunday.
The Buccaneers goals were scored by Relebohile Mofokeng, Patrick Maswanganyi, Karim Kimvuidi and an own goal by Disciples’ Andoniaina Andrianavalona.
Riveiro said it was a much-improved performance when compared to the first leg.
I’m happy with the results, happy that we’ve qualified for the next round, which is the most important thing.
Whoever is involved in football knows how difficult the preliminary stages are.
It was not an easy team to play against, they forced us to run a lot,” said Riveiro.
Pirates won the competition in 1995, were losing finalists in 2013, and last qualified for the group stages in 2018-2019 season.
The coach acknowledged that the team is hungry to lift the continental title.
“I am giving a lot of value to the performance and the result.
We were very committed and responsible because we were playing for something very important for our fans, the club and ourselves as a group.
Football history is full of these big blows, that nobody expects that we’re not going to get anything else, but we have to win these preliminary rounds,” explained the Spaniard.
Despite the score margin, Riveiro lambasted the officiating, arguing that his team was denied two goals.
The coach said officials also made similar mistakes in the first leg.
“It was pretty much the same, funny enough in the first leg, a lot of goals were disallowed through offside.
This is a consequence of the way they play.
They play offside, in the last line they are aggressive in man marking, they try to use that tool, that resource to defend.
I think we scored four more goals, the others were disallowed, I’m not sure if it was correct or not,” explained the coach.
Meanwhile, Pirates will face Jwaneng Galaxy FC of Botswana in the next round, after they beat Namibia’s Africa Stars 6-5 on penalties.
Jwaneng caused an upset last season when they knocked the Buccaneers out of the tournament.
