Battle for second poised to go down to the wire

“IT’S still in our hands.”

That was the bold claim of Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro as the race for second place in the Premiership goes down to the wire.

Having been in fine form in recent weeks, Pirates were tipped to tighten their grip on second spot during the penultimate round of fixtures on Saturday. But it wasn’t to be.

Sekhukhune United proved to be an immovable object in the two teams’ dress rehearsal for their Nedbank Cup final clash on May 27 as the match ended 1-1.

That result put a spanner in the works in Pirates’ bid to finish second and qualify for the Caf Champions League as they are now level with SuperSport United (51 points), who beat Kaizer Chiefs in Rustenburg.

But Riveiro remains positive heading into their must-win last league game against AmaZulu in Durban on Saturday.

“It was not our best game, but I think we did enough to get the result. But with one shot on target, the opponent got a goal here at our home. It’s the same story as last week against Royal AM,” Riveiro said.

“We couldn’t win but at least we didn’t lose.

“You can correct me if I am wrong, but it’s still in our hands to get the second spot when we win next week in Durban – and that’s our objective now,” he said confidently.

Confidence is something Pirates’ players have mastered.

Terrence Dzvukamanja has been scoring goals for fun and notched up his seventh league goal against ‘Babina Noko’ before Edwin Gyimah’s equaliser.

Despite Pirates holding a only two-goal cushion (+15) over SuperSport (+13) heading into the showdown, Riveiro is not worried about his players scoring against Usuthu – but first they must win.

“We need to win first. It’s going to be a difficult game against AmaZulu, who are an excellent team. It’s the last game of the season, so it will be closely watched,” Riveiro said.

“But importantly we need the three points first and players who are as good as possible. And then in the end who’ll see how many goals (we’ll need) – maybe (we’ll need) just one.”

SuperSport have punched above their weight this season.

Re-appointed by the club after more than a decade since his first spell, which delivered three successive titles, Gavin Hunt has made something out of nothing from the largely inexperienced squad at his disposal.

Their 1-0 win at Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace was sweet for Hunt as it came against Kaizer Chiefs, who sacked him in 2020.

Gamphani Lungu’s goal put paid to any chances of Chiefs salvaging anything from their season as they are guaranteed to finish outside the top three in another trophyless season.

If you offered Hunt the chance to play continental football next season – be it the Champions League or Confederation Cup – he’d have bitten your hand off ...

“If you said to me with one game to go we’d be third with the team that we put together, I would have taken it. So on to next week and let’s finish and see where we go from there,” he said of their clash against Sekhukhune on Saturday.