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Riveiro Defends Pirates' Sibisi Penalty Decision

Riveiro Defends Pirates' Sibisi Penalty Decision

Riveiro Defends Pirates' Sibisi Penalty Decision

Orlando Pirates could have missed the chance to rev up competition with their rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns.

Chiefs created a new rivalry with Sundowns this season in the goalscoring charts with their decision to give their penalties to striker Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana.

Bimenyimana's hat-trick of penalties against Stellenbosch saw him become the joint-top leading goalscorer with Sundowns striker Peter Shalulile on six goals.

Shalulile has also been the designated penalty taker for the Brazilians this season and after Erasmus scored his first goal in his first start, since his return at the club, an equalizer against AmaZulu. 

Read: Erasmus' Heartfelt Plea To Pirates Fans

There was an expectation that the former Sundowns forward was going to take the penalty awarded to the Buccaneers in the second stanza against Usuthu.

However, Nkosinathi Sibisi surprisingly took the spot-kick and his penalty was saved by goalkeeper Veli Mothwa, as AmaZulu held on to a 1-1 draw. 

Riveiro says it doesn't matter who took the penalty and gave Sibisi credit for having the courage to step up.

"That's not relevant. Someone has to take the penalty and yeah he did it. Thank you for doing it, it's not easy," Riveiro told journalists in a press conference.

"To take the responsibility, hopefully we have more chances and more frequent possibilities to shoot a penalty. 

"Sibisi is a rock, he will be back immediately, obviously we're all disappointed with the result but it's not because we missed a penalty," he added. 

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Erasmus also gave his thoughts on the game after his first start since his return and says it's a positive that he managed to find the back of the net.

The 32-year old also encouraged the Pirates fans to keep supporting the team, as he believes it's only a matter of time before they turn things around.

"I think we started a bit slow (against AmaZulu), it was a bit of a miscommunication in the way we needed to press," Erasmus said in an interview with the club's media posted on their official Twitter account.

"But we corrected it after 20 minutes and we tried to get an early goal but you know with the incident that happened between our goalkeeper and Majoro set us a bit back and the ref gave a penalty which I don't think was one. 

"But then we regrouped and kept on going, I managed to get on the scoresheet, my first time since I'm back so for me that's a good positive," he said. 

Read: Riveiro On Bucs' Scoring Woes: It's Not About Synergies Or Luck

"You know it's a difficult one to take a draw with the chance we created but we've got to stay positive. We need support from the fans to cheer us on and not be negative.

"Just to keep motivating us because they are the 12th man on the field and it's important for them to keep motivating us, things will change around, we just need a little bit of time," he added.  

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