Pirates coach says team never gave up

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro said his team had to suffer to get success in Saturday’s Nedbank Cup final but it was their ‘never-say-die’ attitude that took them to the trophy.

Pirates scored a stoppage-time winner against Mamelodi Sundowns at the Mbombela Stadium for a 2-1 victory that saw them retain the cup they won in similar circumstances last season.

“It was a really bad beginning of the game from our side, it took a lot of time for us to be connected with the rhythm that Sundowns applied in the first 15-20 minutes,” said Riveiro in his analysis of the game.

“I don't know why? Maybe a little bit nerves but we were not comfortable. Due to that domination in the beginning, they got a penalty, they got the opportunity to get the lead. One more time (goalkeeper) Sipho (Chaine) was fantastic at that time.”

Chaine saved Lucas Ribeiro’s 10th-minute spot-kick to ensure it was a goalless stalemate at the break.

“In the last phase of the first half, we got some opportunities to run behind the last line with Deon (Hotto) and with Evidence Magkopa. But with less capacity to control the game, we knew in the way we approached the game, we're going to have quick attacks, we're going to have opportunities to run but less control in the middle.

“But I think in the first half, little by little, we managed to create problems for them,” Riveiro added.

“In the second half, there was a slight change of dynamic and tactically, we had some problems to adjust. And before we did, they got the lead.”

DRAMATIC LATE WINNER

Sundowns broke the deadlock in the 56th minute through Themba Zwane but Pirates responded with a Patrick Maswanganyi penalty in the final 20 minutes and then the dramatic late winner from substitute Relebogile Mofokeng.

“And from there, we tried something different, we changed a little bit the profile of our forwards to, to get that control expecting that they will have problems in the last part of the of the game, in the last 25-30 minutes. It was an excellent performance in terms of not giving up.

"The team was trying and little by little we started to get more control. We managed to equalise and I think the reaction of the team once we scored tells about how much they believed that we could make it. We suffered, but sometimes you need to be a little bit lucky in these type of games.”