Riveiro praises Pirates fighting spirit after Royal AM win

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riviero has praised his players fighting spirit after they knocked Royal AM out of MTN8 and reached the semi-finals of the competition.

ALSO READ: Pirates edge Royal AM to reach semi-finals of MTN8

Riveiro’s edged Thwihli Thwahla 2-1 at Chatsworth Stadium on Saturday to secure a semi-final spot for the tournament they won in 2020 under former coach Josef Zinnbauer.

Even the Spain-born coach was super proud of his players for the way they played, he admitted that Royal AM were very competitive and had their moments to try and stage a come-back.

“The game had different moments for both teams with different approaches. I think we got the advantage very soon which is important in this type of game because the opponents need to immediately react and play more open,” the Buccaneers coach told SuperSport TV after the game.

“It is a pity that we couldn’t finalise the game before with some transitions we had in the first half and also the mistakes we provoked in the pressing. But, we didn’t suffer so much, we conceded one goal which we could have avoided. But the way the guys are fighting every three days is something to put in value. We are very proud of them, very proud.”

Pirates opened the scoring in as early as the third minute of the match and Riveiro explains that the pressing from his players helped in getting the early advantage and the pitch played a huge role as well.

“If you play short passes or horizontal passes, you need to be careful or otherwise you will pay the bill. It happened a couple of times. It is something that we did very well in that sense,” he said.