Riveiro warns Orlando Pirates ahead of Al-Ahly clash

With his team having already qualified for the knockout stages of the CAF Champions League, Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has emphasised the importance of maintaining focus ahead of their final group match against Al-Ahly in the last group match in Cairo on Saturday.

The Buccaneers qualified for the quarterfinals of the lucrative African competition this past weekend after beating CR Belouizidad of Algeria at the Orlando Stadium on Sunday.

Goals from Relebohile Mofokeng and Thalente Mbatha earned Pirates a 2-1 victory over the Algerian outfit. The victory also saw Bucs topple Al-Ahly at the top of the Group C standings with the teams having to face each other in the last group match in Cairo on Saturday.

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Speaking after the Belouizdad game, Riveiro said he wants to keep the winning momentum going and end the group phase as group winners, but added that in order to that they need to be at their best all the time.

“We have an opportunity to go there and compete and win one more game, in a magnificent scenario, with an opportunity of leading the group at the end of the game. So there are a lot of components to keep our motivation very high and not take the last game of the group lightly,” said Riveiro during a post-match conference at the Orlando Stadium on Sunday night.

“Like I said, to be competitive with our team in this competition, we need our best performance all the time. There is no other way that you can win games in this group and if we are not 100% in Cairo, it won’t be a good day for us.

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“We can’t afford to go there in our 90, 80, 70%, it’s not going to be nice because this is a very good team especially when they’re playing at home. So we have to make sure that we go there with the right mentality and ambition to collect points.

“Why not finish the group stage in the lead? It was never the main objective, the objective was to be in the next round. The objective is always winning and that’s our mentality sometimes we are not going to make it.

“But when we have the opportunity to do it, we will do everything in order to make it possible,” concluded Riveiro.