Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has maintained that their assessment of the opposition is more emphasized on their style of play and experience rather than where they hail from.
The Spanish mentor led his charges into the CAF Champions League knockout stages with a game to spare following their 2-1 win over CR Belouizdad eSgodini on Sunday.
Relebohile Mofokeng opened the scoring for the Buccaneers in the first half before Thalente Mbatha’s long-range belter rounded off the scoring to grab maximum points and remain unbeaten in Africa this term.
Riveiro also touched on how this is a learning curve for them especially playing the likes of 12-time record champions Al Ahly.
“In general, there’s a type of football maybe different in the south than the north,” Riveiro told the media.
“It’s true, it’s slightly different but I don’t analyse the teams or think about the teams where they’re coming from.
“It’s the type of football that they want to play, the experience that they have. It’s like I said, we try to minimise the opponents as much as we can and we try to exploit the weaknesses that they have like we all have.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I’m telling the truth all the time.
“This is a new experience for us, for me as a coach as well. It’s my first time in the group stage, it’s first time playing against teams of this calibre, so we’re learning with the current movement.
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“We’re able to understand that we’re coming into a competition where we need to put our best performance in each and every game if we want to continue alive.
“We as coaches, we as the coaching staff, we have to do everything in order to help our players even with a little bit more intensity than in other competitions.
“That’s the process itself. Now because we’re winning we can say that it’s going well, but I’m going to repeat myself again, I think it’s more about having a look at the performances that these players are putting on the field every three days more than the results that they’re getting,” he said further.
Pirates next take on the Red Devils at Cairo National Stadium on Saturday, 18 January.