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Riveiro urges Pirates to make better start against Richards Bay

rugby02 November 2023 17:35| ยฉ Backpage TXT
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Orlando Pirates will be hoping for a cup tonic when they face Richards Bay in the Carling Knockout quarterfinals at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Kick-off is at 3pm CAT (SA, GMT+2)

The Buccaneers have struggled in the league this season, but won their first silverware last month when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns on penalties in the MTN8 final to defend their title.

Jose Riveiro's side suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat to Cape Town Spurs in the Mother City on Wednesday to go winless in their last four DStv Premiership outings.

Pirates made a winning start to the newest version of the League Cup as they sent the Urban Warriors packing following a 2-0 victory in the round of 16 on 20 October.

However, the Soweto giants started poorly against Spurs on this occasion and fell behind after just three minutes to Lubeni Haukongo's opener before Jarrod Moroole doubled the hosts' lead on 36 minutes.

Evidence Makgopa managed to halve the deficit seven minutes later, although the damage had already been done and Riveiro acknowledges Bucs cannot afford a repeat performance on the road.

"It's difficult when you start the game losing 2-0, in a short space of time," the Spaniard said. "We didn't start the game properly, you cannot start in an away game [like that].

"The type of goals we conceded, then everything is difficult. We can speak about the amount of chances we missed, we were very close to equalise, to do 1-1, in the next action they got the second goal... a really bad result obviously."

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR TEMBO

The Natal Rich Boyz's fortunes haven't really improved under Kaitano Tembo, who has picked up just one win from his opening 10 league matches since replacing Vasili Manousakis at the helm in the off-season.

A 3-1 loss to Cape Town City in Durban on Sunday extended their winless run to four games and left the KZN club two points adrift of safety in 15th position.

But Tembo's side can take encouragement from their 2-1 triumph over Moroka Swallows in the Carling Knockout a fortnight ago, having also beaten them in the top flight five weeks earlier.

Tembo admits his is facing an uncertain future at the King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium, although he'll continue striving to improve the team's situation.

"Obviously, when you don't win games, it's always worrying but at the same time I think for me what is important is to continue working very hard with the team because I feel that we can turn things around," the Zimbabwean said.

"We just need a little bit of luck as well because we are playing against teams that don't really create much but they score goals.

"With us, we have to create probably 10 clear-cut chances for us to be able to score a goal. So, it's always going to be difficult. We just have to continue working hard."

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