Jose Riveiro predicts a bright future for Orlando Pirates after cruel CAF Champions League exit
26th April 2025
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A dejected Orlando Pirates coach, Jose Riveiro, believes that the future is very bright for the Buccaneers, judging by the team's young talent and the experience accumulated in the CAF Champions League.
This is how Riveiro responded after they were eliminated in the CAF Champions League on Friday night, missing out on the final, losing 3-2 to Pyramids at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo.
Mohau Nkota and Relebohile Mofokeng, two youngsters who have carried the team in this competition, scored again yesterday, and Riveiro is raving about them.
"I'm very proud of the whole team, not only in this competition, also the long journey that we've already covered together this year. I think the qualification to the Champions League for all of them is excellent,” Riveiro said.
“Like I said before we started the competition before we started the group stage, I said we come to the Champions League with an intention to grow as a group, football players and the coach, nobody among ourselves having experience in this competition before, playing regularly with very young players.
“I think it's fantastic for the future, especially for the future of our young players who are already important players at 19/20 years old, although they have a lot of things to improve and to keep proving that they are at the level and it's very good news for the club as well because the future is looking bright for Orlando Pirates.
“Having a young squad, an ambitious one and right now with one more year of experience in a competition like the Champions League, so like I said, there's a lot of things to celebrate not today, obviously today we are sad, we are not happy but the future is looking nice for the club."
Riveiro has described the loss to Pyramids as cruel, after they led twice in this game and were in a winning position until the 84th minute, when Fiston Mayele scored the decisive goal.
This was also Pirates’ first loss in this tournament, and it had to come from this crucial game.
"We are out of the competition today after losing our first match in the whole tournament, a tough one to swallow, to digest, we'll need a little bit of time because I think it's a very cruel result,” the coach added.
“We played a really good game, the performance away from home against an excellent team but we couldn't manage to control two moments of the game where we got the lead twice and they managed to equalise almost immediately after our goals."
