Riveiro warns Pirates that AmaZulu will be no ‘walk in the park’

Orlando Pirates will be looking to keep their good record against AmaZulu FC intact when the sides meet in a Nedbank Cup quarterfinal clash at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.

The Buccaneers have not lost to Usuthu since the 2013/14 season and Pirates will be hoping to continue to stamp their authority on their KZN opponents. 

Pirates coach Jose Riveiro, however, knows that his club won’t have it easy against his fellow Spaniard Pablo Franco Martin and his AmaZulu side.

“Like I said after the draw, it’s going to be a complicated one at this stage of the competition because each team will do their best …. to find themselves in the last matches. (Pirates went all the way and won the Nedbank Cup last year),” Riveiro told the media in Johannesburg prior to their trip to Durban.

“AmaZulu are a team that we respect a lot. They have experienced players, players that have proven many times that they are excellent players.

“It’s an away game … it’s not going to be a walk in the park for us. But at the same time, we’re comfortable in those scenarios. We just need to show our best version in those kinds of games. We had one week to prepare, we’re in a good space and we’re looking forward to the kick off to play our football one more time,” commented Riveiro,

‘Statistics are there to be broken’

Martin says it’s going to be a relief if AmaZulu can beat Pirates for the first time in years.

“It’s going to be a relief and that’s the fact. For the last 13 years, AmaZulu were not capable of beating Orlando Pirates, we are talking about 35 or even more games. That speaks for itself knowing the history of few wins and many defeats for AmaZulu,” Martin told the media in Durban.

“This season we were able to get a draw against them (Pirates) . Let’s see what happens on Saturday. As I said the statistics are there to be broken and so far we are making history by reaching this quarterfinal because that didn’t happen for us in 12 years, we have not beaten them in 13 years.

“So we will try to break that history on Saturday, that is the idea and it’s an ambition that we have,” added the Spanish coach.