Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro is gutted after the Buccaneers were knocked out of the CAF Champions League.

The 3-2 defeat to Egyptian outfit Pyramids in Cairo on Friday was Pirates’s first loss in this season’s tournament, in over ten games, but it came in the semi-finals and dented their hopes of reaching the final.

If Pirates went through, it could have set up an all-South African final against Mamelodi Sundowns, for the first time in the history of the competition. But, it wasn’t to be.

“We are out of the competition after losing our first match in the whole tournament. It’s a tough one to swallow, to digest; we will need a little bit of time because I think it’s a very cruel result,” asserted the Spaniard.

“We played, I think, a really good game. It was a top performance away from home against an excellent team, but we couldn’t control two moments of the game where we got the lead two times, and they managed to equalize almost immediately after our goals,” he admitted.

True to Riveiro’s words, Pirates’s defence left a lot to be desired when they were in the lead and allowed Pyramids back into the game.

“So it’s a mix of pride and sadness at the same time, but I guess it’s a normal thing, and we’re falling, we’re getting out of the competition, but we do it in a good way, or in a way that we all have to feel proud about ourselves.”

Pirates will now switch focus to the Soweto Derby against Kaizer Chiefs at FNB Stadium on 3 May in a league match, before the rivals meet again in Durban on 10 May in the Nedbank Cup final.