Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro is confident his side can overturn the first-leg defeat against Jwaneng Galaxy to qualify for the CAF Champions League group stage.
Pirates suffered a 1-0 defeat in the first leg away from home, sandwiched between 1-0 losses against Mamelodi Sundowns in the league and Stellenbosch in the MTN8 second-leg semi-final.
While they advanced to the final of the domestic cup, they face a new challenge in the form of Morena Ramoreboli’s Botswana Premier League champions.
“Look it doesn’t matter, it’s about us tomorrow to perform our best, it’s a home game against a good team, an opponent that is leading already 1-0, it’s a challenge but we love the challenges,” Riveiro said ahead of the second leg clash.
“This one is an opportunity to prove that even in difficult circumstances, we can make it, we can be our best version tomorrow and the games we already played in the competition are not going to play tomorrow, it won’t be played tomorrow.
“What happened in Botswana is in the past and tomorrow we have the opportunity to write an important page in the club history, for our future, for many things like you hear with the captain, the players really want to go to the competition [group[ stages] and test themselves and test themselves against the best teams in the continent.
“So if tomorrow we don’t get a result that we’re not wishing, it’s not because of a lack of trying everything, it’s going to be difficult for us but it’s going to be even more difficult for the opponent for sure.”
Pirates host Jwaneng on Friday evening at 19h30.
