Pirates wary of 'Dondol situation' as Riveiro eyes a second trophy

The first major upset of the tournament by ABC Motsepe League side Dondol Stars, who came from a goal down to beat SuperSport United 2-1 on Wednesday night, has also been a rude awakening for top-flight sides to have their wits about them against lower-tier teams.

“This type of competition brings you the possibility for all of us, the PSL teams and teams that are coming from the lower leagues, to dream about having beautiful nights like what happened yesterday [with Dondol beating SuperSport],” Riveiro said.

“It happens everywhere, even in Spain where I am from. The format was different a long time ago and there were always surprises of big clubs being eliminated in the first round.

“We are facing the tournament with great respect for our opponent.

“They [All Stars] are organised with some interesting individuals as well and we know the difficulty of the environment on Saturday.”

All Stars have a couple of Pirates players in their set-up with midfielder Thabiso Sesane and goalkeeper Ephraim Mothibedi on loan at the second-tier side.

Pirates will be without their skipper Innocent Maela who is serving a one-match suspension.