Riveiro happy with Pirates win against ‘difficult’ City

Jose Riveiro was pleased with his Orlando Pirates charges following the 1-0 win over Polokwane City in a DStv Premiership clash played at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Saturday.

READ MORE: Makgopa earns Pirates narrow victory over City

Riveiro admitted that his team found it hard to play their game because of the way Rise and Shine were able to dictate the tempo of the game.

However, the Pirates coach is happy that his side was just able to get a positive result in the match, with striker Evidence Makgopa scoring the winner in the 68th minute.

“It was a difficult one, like I said it’s going to be before the match. They managed to reduce the tempo in the first half and again in the beginning of the second half. We struggled to find continuity in our game, but anyway I think we did quite good in the first half getting clear chances to get an early lead,” Riveiro told SuperSport TV after the match.

“But if you don’t do it (score early) it’s always difficult with those tricky moments of the game when you don’t want to make a mistake (concede a goal) and be far from getting three points.”

The Spaniard added that they could have scored more goals in the match, but their opponents were defending well.

“Luckily we managed to score from a set-piece. We should have went on to score (again) in the last minutes, but it was not easy. They were defending well, man-marking and it’s always difficult. But overall, I think we did a good job and deserve the final result.”

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Following the win, Pirates are now in fourth place on the league standings with 29 points after 18 games.

Bucs will be looking to continue with their winning momentum when they host Cape Town Spurs at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday.