Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro says their win to move them into second place means nothing as they need to occupy the CAF Champions League spot at the end of the season, not today.
Pirates secured a 2-0 win over out-of-form Richards Bay to move into the Champions League qualification spot with 40 points thanks to goals from Terrence Dzvukamanja and Monnapule Salenng in each half.
“We’re satisfied with the performance, not only the result but the way we did it, knowing the difficulty of the task, and our opponent, they are going through a difficult moment in terms of results, it’s not a discussion,” Riveiro said in the post-match press conference.
“After the break… we had two weeks to prepare for the game, to reflect and show what we did, Richards Bay fought and made things difficult but we managed the game.
“In the first half, there were some situations where we lost the ball in unexpected situations and that forced our defenders out of position, but we did well.”
“In the second half, we had good chances to finish the game early but then the game becomes a bit crazy for a while for 10 to 15 minutes where nobody was in control, but happy with the three points and understanding the importance of the points at this stage of the season.”
The Spaniard said they intended to fight for the title this season but now that it’s no longer possible – they need to compete and make sure nobody can beat them to runners-up so they can compete in Africa’s elite club competition next season.
“When the season started, we wished and worked and tried to be at the top unfortunately it wasn’t possible this season to achieve that level of consistency in order to fight for the top,” Riveiro said.
“No our objective is to get as high as possible and that means second and represent Pirates in Africa next season, badly – and we’ll go all the way until the end to make sure that we are competing until the end, it doesn’t matter who’s second today or tonight, it’s the end of the season [that matters]. And we want to be that team, we know what to do, we need to work.”
