Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro says he is expecting Marumo Gallants to adopt a different style of play in their Nedbank Cup semi-finals showdown at Orlando Stadium on Sunday (15:00), in what will be their third meeting of the season.

The two sides already claimed each other’s scalps in the Betway Premiership, with the title-chasing Sea Robbers cruising to a comfortable 8-1 victory over the Bloemfontein-based outfit in December last year.

In a twist of events, Bahlabane Ba Ntwa hindered the Buccaneers’ quest for a league title with a shock 2-0 win in the city of roses earlier last month, in what was Abdeslam Ouaddou’s first game in charge of the relegation-threatened team while the Spanish mentor was suspended.

“We had a recent opportunity to play against Marumo, and that didn’t go well for us – a tough time in Bloemfontein. From there, we had the opportunity to continue analyzing and visualizing them and trying to understand better what kind of a football team they want to be,” said Riveiro.

“When we played them, I think it was after a few days with the new coach in charge, and there was a little bit of uncertainty about what kind of team [to expect] and what kind of game are we going to play there.

“So, the opportunity to learn and understand our opponents is something that is presented to us every week, not only in the games that we are playing against them [Gallants], so we know them very well as well as I’m sure they know us.”

The 49-year-old tactician continued: “Nowadays in football, there’s no secrets about what the teams are capable of doing, it’s about the way you want to approach the game on the day and as usual we need to be ready for many different scenarios.”

However, Riveiro believes the outcome of the previous matches won’t come to great effect in the upcoming encounter, stating that a knockout competition is a different ball game that will force both teams to alter their approach.

“It’s a new story on Sunday, it’s a knockout game, It’s a game of consequences. It’s only two possible results; the other games we played were games with three possible results, so it affects the way that one team or the other approaches the game,” the Bucs coach added.

“This is a different story; it’s a possibility to go to the final. So, it requires a different way to look at the game from both teams, and we already have a decent experience in this type of competition together.

“Again, we are going to try to recover as good as possible in a short space of time to prepare the game as good as we can and do our best to be in another final – whatever it takes.” 

Pirates have won this competition in the past two seasons and they are yet to suffer a loss since losing to the same very Gallants on penalties in the 2021/22 season.