Jose Riveiro takes Orlando Pirates back to Champions League group stages

Riveiro was speaking to the media shortly after overseeing Pirates’ qualification, beating Botswana champions Jwaneng Galaxy 3-0 on aggregate, winning the second leg 1-0 at Orlando Stadium yesterday.

Monnapule Saleng’s late strike sealed the tie for Bucs. An emotional Riveiro says this result means a lot to him and his team.

"Absolutely special for me, if you can imagine, not everyone has an opportunity to coach Orlando Pirates first of all. That's the first thing that makes me feel fortunate and that's why we have a fantastic group and they are taking us to the group stages,” Riveiro said.

“As a coach, I'm very proud of the work that we did so far in this competition in these four games because we were extremely competitive. I know really well how difficult it is to play preliminary rounds and to play games that you can only lose because everybody feels that you already won at the moment that you see who's coming, which team are you getting in the draw."

Riveiro thanked the thousands of people who braved the chilly weather conditions to come and support their team as they reached the group stages of the premium club football competition for the first time in five years.

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"Extremely difficult game, if someone has doubts about it, today is the proof. This is Champions League. We played against the champions of Botswana, it's a good team with much more experience than us in this competition and it's so difficult to play the second leg when you have a clear advantage and you don't want to lose that advantage,” the coach explained.

“Thank you so much to the people who came to Orlando because the night is much more ugly. So we have to appreciate one more time that they came in numbers and supported us because it's important in these types of games. Last season we got eliminated here against the same team with a very small crowd and today we could feel much more support, it's important for the team."