Riveiro hails Orlando Pirates after reaching MTN8 final

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro was again full of praise for his charges after they reached their third successive MTN8 final.

Goals from Tshegofatso Mabasa and Deon Hotto earned the Buccaneers a 2-0 (3-1 aggregate) win over Cape Town City at the Orlando Pirates Stadium on Saturday and a spot in the final, where they will meet Stellenbosch FC.

After reaching their third MTN8 final, in a row, Riveiro said the Buccaneers players must be proud of themselves, because they are writing their history.

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“Together, here we are playing a final every five months, something like that … and it’s something that is not common. We are getting used to it, it’s nice but at the same time we have to understand that it’s not always possible to find yourself in the final even when you are a big club like Orlando Pirates,” said Riveiro during the post-match conference at Orlando Stadium.

“We need to enjoy these moments and the guys need to realise what they are doing because they are writing a fantastic chapter in the history of the club and they must be proud,” added Riveiro.

‘Not cup specialist’ – Riveiro on Pirates winning cups

Riveiro has now reached five finals – winning the previous four – since his arrival at the club in July 2022, but the Spaniard refuses to acknowledge the “cup specialist” tag.

“I know myself very well better than anybody else and I don’t consider myself any (cup specialist). I’m not anywhere near special or anything,” said Riveiro.

“I’m just trying to understand the place where I am. I’m not pretending to be what I’m not. I just try to do my job as well as possible every day.

“I try to help these guys to make their dreams possible and play football to do it as well as possible. We have a big responsibility here all of us in the club to try to make our fans as happy as possible.

“We have the opportunity to change lives sometimes. We do our job and have that responsibility in mind,” concluded Riveiro.

Before playing Stellies in the final, Pirates will meet Jwaneng Galaxy of Botswana in the first leg of the second preliminary round of the CAF Champions League, with the game set to be played after the international break on the weekend of September 13-15.