Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has opened up on their week in preparing for Baroka after their 4-1 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns.
Pirates host the second-tier side at Orlando Stadium in the Last-16 Nedbank Cup on Saturday afternoon, looking to bounce back from a major disappointment.
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Having lost in their top of the table clash at Loftus Versfeld last week, Riveiro admits there was more than just physical recovery that was needed after a gruelling three-game period during 10 days.
“The players are looking very well. We went through a tough week in terms of the level of the games, three games in a short space of time, we didn’t finish the week the way we wanted, with the result in Pretoria,” he said.
“The start of this week was more about rest, recovery, from conditional and physiological perspective, I think mentally we did our job also trying to understand why we couldn’t be as good as we would have liked to be [against Sundowns].
“It was a good reflection from our side about understanding what happened, trying to make that tough week, not only the last game, the week itself, something we can capitalise on in the future as well.”
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After the loss to Sundowns, he admitted that the Soweto Derby win and beating Sekhukhune United in Polokwane over their tricky period, meant they were still pleased with their return for the week – but they are now returning home for the first time since 12 January.
“Another opportunity for us as a team to compete in the Nedbank Cup, happy to have some time to prepare for the gamer this week, we’re looking forward to Saturday to come back to Orlando,” he said.
“Its been a while, I think they last game was CRB in the Champions League, so it’s been a while. We are well prepared, knowing the type of opponent we’ll be playing, so yeah, we’re prepared.”
The two sides meet at eSgodini at 15h00 on Saturday afternoon, for a place in the quarter-final of the domestic cup.
