My Technical Decisions Were as It Should Be.. Zoran: The “Boss” Has Taken Its Own Destiney in Hand
In the post-match press conference held following the end of Al Ain and Al Sharjah Match, Zoran Mamic, Croatia’s Head Coach of Al Ain FC, confirmed that his team’s destiny is still in their hands despite the loss to Sharjah and that his squad will be ready aptly when hosting Al Wahda at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium and among the Ainawi fans in matchround 18 of the Arabian Gulf League. He pointed out: “I have to admit that we did not play football in the appropriate way, players did not also invest abundant chances in front of the opponent’s net, and we did not take advantage of Al Wahda’s draw this round. However, by the end of the day this is football and still we have the chance to improve our performance prior the coming match specially we have quality and skilful squad.”
He added: “We had a number of problems during our preparations for this match where Marcus Berg suffered a severe flue and high fever and joined the team an hour prior the kick-off whistle. Also, Ahmad Khalil and Ahmed Barman joined the team despite great losses where the first lost his sister two days ago, while Barman lost his grandfather prior 24hrs of the match.”
“I believe this happens to several teams not Al Ain as a special case,” he commented on a question on the reasons that Al Ain conceded more than one goal in the final fifteen minutes. He stated: “We played an open match tonight and Al Sharjah’s second goal was scored due to incorrect penalty as Khaled Issa confirmed that he did not touch Al Sharjah’s striker. That penalty was the turning point and we have to accept such mistakes as they happen in the world of football.”
On his unfortunate substitutes in this match, he underlined: “The technical decisions during the match were not wrong at all. If I did not make these substitutions, the result might be worse. There was a clear problem on the right side and this is why I selected Bandar who is known by his speed and offensive actions. As for Amer Abdul Rahman, I replaced him following he received a yellow card, besides he has not reached the required level of fitness and readiness yet, given that he has joined the team recently following a long period of recovery from an injury.” He signed off: “All substitutions were essential and sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong, but today our decisions were as they should be.”
