Photo Credit - Orlando Pirates.
Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has admitted to being impressed by his players following a 2-1 Betway Premiership win against Sekhukhune United at the Old Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday.
Deon Hotto and Makhehlene Makhaula scored early in each half to secure back-to-back victories for Jose Riveiro's team, although a goal from Linda Mntambo on 77 minutes prevented them from keeping a clean sheet.
“It's an excellent result, massive three points for us, one more achievement to win here away against Sekhukhune," Riveiro said on SuperSport TV as quoted by KickOff.
“It's always an inconvenience obviously, the game plan is not gonna change, it was not compromised but you need time to adjust again some positions, some behaviors, also for Thapelo to come in an unexpected way.
“It was difficult for him in the beginning to get the pace, to get the rhythm but little by little I think we managed to be ourselves especially in the first-half and in the beginning of the second.”
On Sekhukhune midfielder Linda Mntambo pulling a goal back against his former club, Riveiro said: “Once they introduced the last subs, gambling a little bit and looking for deep balls to the striker with Linda in between the lines, it was a little bit difficult to contend. We gave away a lot of balls, a lot of fouls.
“Actually I think their goal is coming from one situation, where we had a good transition that we didn't read very well and immediately we're defending in our box.
“Anyway, one more game to put in our back, in terms of resilience, we're coming from a derby, a tough one, it's really a demanding week for the team and so far the behavior of the team, the performance is second to none.”
Pirates made it two wins in as many league matches to keep the gap between themselves and Sundowns to six points ahead of Saturday’s highly-anticipated encounter at Loftus.
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