Orlando Pirates touched down in Cairo, Egypt for their fourth trip to North Africa, bargaining on what has happened on all their previous trips to this part of the continent this season.
Pirates will take to the 30 June Stadium pitch as the away team in just over 48 hours after surviving a scare in the first leg in playing out a goalless draw with Pyramids FC.
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Preferably for Bucs would have been a win at FNB Stadium last Saturday, but 0-0 is still an encouraging result considering that any scoring draw away will take them through.
CAF still uses the away goals rule to clear ties which will have ended in a draw after two legs.
"In case of equality in the number of goals scored during the two matches and only in this case, the team which will have scored the greatest number of away goals will be declared winner," reads the CAF rules.
Should the second leg also finish goalless, then penalties will determine the winner, who then proceeds to meet either Mamelodi Sundowns or Al Ahly in the final.
So, as it stands, Pirates have the cushion of being favoured by the fact that they will remain alive with another stalemate – proceeding to penalties with a goalless draw or moving into the decider with a scoring draw if they don’t win.
All that Jose Riveiro needs to avoid is defeat in open play.
Giving Pirates courage is that they have been winners on all their three travels to North Africa this season.
They won 2-1 against CR Belouizdad in Algiers last November, then overcame Al Ahly by a similar scoreline in Cairo at the beginning of the year, before that famous 1-0 victory over MC Alger in front of their partisan fans on April 1.
The plus for the side is that unlike CRB, Al Ahly, and MCA – Pyramids don’t enjoy a huge following, so there will be no 12th man influence.
The Buccaneers are also the only unbeaten club in the competition this season having won eight and drawn five, which includes four goalless results.
What makes it even better is that they don’t even need to win in Cairo on Friday night to go through.
So, Riveiro – who still has unfinished business in the Betway Premiership and Nedbank Cup – will have the words he has been saying this month.
"We took this continental test to understand where we are as a group.
"I think we managed to go through 14 [13] games in that competition, solid and conceding only four goals, so it says quite a lot about how competitive we were in that maximum level and difficult test.
"We are trying to use that confidence for the rest of the competitions as well to understand that if we are capable to be that good in that space, we can be at the same level when we are playing here at home.
"So far, in the Nedbank, it was the same type of approach of trying to play every game like these kinds of games, which is a final.
"In terms of confidence, every competition is helping us this season to get better even when things are not going well like it happened in one of the competitions when we got out in the first round.
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"That game helped us understand that if you are not good enough on the day, then the competition is over for you.
"Winning is also helpful to get fresh as soon as possible and we are trying to get the energy from every result," says Riveiro.
