Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has made a prediction about the 2024/25 Betway Premiership title race following his teams’ emphatic win against Marumo Gallants.
The Buccaneers claimed an impressive 8-1 victory over Gallants at Orlando Stadium on Tuesday afternoon to remain hot on Mamelodi Sundowns’ heals in the title chase.
Pirates collected 24 points in the league after nine matches played thus far. They are three points away from Sundowns who clinched a slender 1-0 win over AmaZulu FC at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
In the current campaign, Pirates have won eight matches and lost once, while Masandawana won nine times and lost on one occasion in 10 games.
The Soweto giants have been tipped as hot favourites to dethrone Sundowns from total dominance, which saw them win seven league titles in a row.
In the past two seasons, Pirates have been finishing as runners-up on the log standings behind Sundowns.
JOSE RIVEIRO EXPECTS TIGHTLY CONTESTED TITLE RACE
With The Ghosts and Sundowns emerging as two teams challenging for the league honours, Jose Riveiro expects a tightly-contested league race.
“In terms of self-confidence of the team, players as individuals to see what they are capable of doing, like I said in the [TV] post-match interview, in the first half, we felt it was a game of uncertainty in the stands with the score at 1-1,” Riveiro said.
“I think in the second half they [Pirates players] showed the personality to keep going, pushing and looking for solutions. And they got a big reward with this amount of goals [eight].
“We all expect to have a tight race for the top during the season. This is just game number nine, but you can see it’s not going to be an easy race. Every game counts, every goal that you score, every goal you concede, so we have to try to find an advantage whenever the advantage is presented to us.
“We had an opportunity [against Gallants] and I’m glad the guys didn’t speculate, they continued to play vertical and attack spaces that were open and ready for us. Overall, I think it’s a good performance from us.”
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