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Thalente Mbatha celebrates his goal for Orlando Pirates with teammates in the Caf Champions League group C win against CR Belouizdad at Orlando Stadium on Sunday. Picture: PHAKAMISA LENSMAN/BACKPAGEPIX
Thalente Mbatha celebrates his goal for Orlando Pirates with teammates in the Caf Champions League group C win against CR Belouizdad at Orlando Stadium on Sunday. Picture: PHAKAMISA LENSMAN/BACKPAGEPIX

Orlando Pirates will aim to win their last game against Al Ahly in Cairo on Saturday to top group C in the 2024-25 Caf Champions League, Bucs coach Jose Riveiro said.

Riveiro’s motivations for a victory against the 12-time title-holders at Cairo International Stadium (6pm SA time) are threefold — to not take the foot off the pedal thus halting their momentum, because anything but a 100% away win against Ahly would be foolhardy and for a potentially marginally easier quarterfinal draw.

The top-placed teams in the four groups go into the top pot for the draw, to be pitted against second-placed sides in the quarters. In as tough and unpredictable a competition as the Champions League the teams that finish second are not always the weaker combination.

More importantly, the top-placed sides get to play their quarterfinal second legs away, which can be an advantage in a two-legged tie.

Pirates (11 points) drew against Al Ahly (10) at Orlando Stadium in the opening round on December 7. The group leaders, inexperienced in the Champions League but also something of an unknown quantity, whose confidence is growing with each success, have reason to believe they can win or draw in Egypt to preserve their group C lead.

“Why not? We have an opportunity to go there and compete and win one more game in a magnificent scenario, with the opportunity to lead the group at the end of the game,” Riveiro said.

“So there are a lot of components to keep our motivation high, not taking the last game of the group stage lightly.

“To be competitive in this competition we need our best performance all the time. There’s no other way you can win games here, in this group.

“And if we are not at 100% in Cairo it’s not going to be a good day for us, for sure. We cannot afford to go there at 90%, 80% or 70% because it’s not going to be nice.

“It’s a good team playing at home so we have to make sure we go there with the right mentality, the ambition to collect points. And why not, to finish the group stages leading the group?

“It was never the main objective. The objective was to be in the next round, but the objective is always winning and that’s our mentality.

“Sometimes we’re not going to make it but if we have the opportunity to do it we will do everything to make it possible.”

Ahly have won four of the past five Champions League titles, two under South African Pitso Mosimane (2019-20 and 2020-21) and two under present Swiss coach Marcel Koller (2022-23 and 2023-24).

Pirates’ opening 2-1 win against CR Belouizdad in Algeria set up their first progression past the group stage since reaching the 2013 final, where they lost 3-1 on aggregate to Ahly.

Bucs followed that result with their 0-0 draw against Ahly at Orlando, a 1-1 draw away against Stade d’Abidjan and 3-0 win at home against the Ivorians, before Sunday’s 2-1 win against Belouizdad in front of a big, noisy crowd at Orlando sealed their quarterfinal place.


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