Riveiro ‘proud’ of Pirates despite draw against Pyramids

Orlando Pirates said he was proud of his players despite their failure to beat Pyramids at home.

This comes after the Buccaneers were held to a 0-0 draw by the Egyptian side in the first leg of the CAF Champions League semifinal at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.

READ MORE: Pirates and Pyramids reach stalemate in Champions League clash

Despite the draw, Riveiro was happy with his players’ performance on the night.

“We would need to have a good game next week in Egypt if we are to go through [to the final]. But I’m proud of my boys, they gave their all tonight,” Riveiro told SABC Sport after the game.

“Both teams had very good opportunities to score a goal, but we will go to the second leg with the score at 0-0. The game itself was not a nil-nil game because both teams created enough chances to at least score one goal. But we will go again next week,” added Riveiro.

Pyramids coach frustrated by VAR

Meanwhile, Pyramids coach Krunoslav Jurcic was left frustrated after his side had two goals ruled out by VAR.

Fiston Mayele’s first half strike was ruled offside, while Sodiq Awujoola’s deflected goal in the second half was ruled as a handball.

“I can say that I’m very proud, we played an excellent match, we scored two goals,” said Jurcic.

“For me, I won the match today 2-0. I like Africa but not in this way.

“I will repeat I’m very proud of how my players played today, how many chances we created, but I’m a little bit frustrated. It’s very difficult to speak now,” he added.

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Pirates and Pyramids will meet again in the second leg in Egypt on Friday. The winner of this tie will meet the winner between Mamelodi Sundowns and Al-Ahly in the final.

Sundowns and Al-Ahly also played to a 0-0 draw at Loftus earlier on Saturday.