Pedro: We Must Win Ajman and Be Back to the Victories Right Track
The Portuguese head coach of Al Ain First Football Team stressed that his team’s recent match against Ajman was not easy as Al Ain did lose the match to the guests and lost the chance to qualify and left the President’s Cup.
In the pre-match press conference of matchweek 7 of AGL, Pedro also said: “Actually, the match was tough and the team exerted massive efforts specially in the second half to avoid losing the match to Ajman. However, this is the case of football game and we are going to host the team again but in a different competition.”
“If we start the match with the level we played in the second half of the past match, we would be for sure close to win and snatch the match’s three points, which is the most important thing at present. We would stop talking and fight until the last second of the match and win the three points. This is the only way to be back to the right track of victories,” he said.
In response to a question on the players who might not play against Ajman, he said: “As the case of past matches of this season, it is difficult to state the names of the first eleven. The team has many injured players and we try to speed up their recovery processes although it is difficult. We are trying our best to turn the team into form but we have to wait until tomorrow to select the final names but as usual we will pick the ready players.”
He pointed out that he knows that Al Ain team should play strongly as of the kickoff whistle as “we all know that Ajman is an organized team and has a compact defensive line and strong and fast payers in the front line special in when they launch counter attacks. We have to be all set to encounter such a scenario by selecting the best and aggressive front line who could shoot from within the box and score goals, and most importantly, to focus on winning the match’s three points.”
Commenting on a statement made by Ajman’s head coach that he did not expect to win Al Ain at home, he said: “This is the world of football. We did not perform well in the first half and Ajman had only two chances and scored their goal in the second one. We did well in the second half although we did not expect to lose to Ajman compared to their efforts.”
“We had several chances to score but we failed to score and by the end of the day you will lose if you do not score. This is why football is so exciting game. Nobody can expect what will happen in the game, but I am sure we will change the history and score, considering the match’s statistics. We had 20 direct shot and 11 corner kicks and got several great chances to score from within Ajman’s box. I do not think that it is a matter of luck as it is related to the quality of playing in the last thirty meters of the field. We would have great chances to score on Thursday and we will be close to win the match,” he added.
As for the fans’ feelings, he said: “I know that they are frustrated exactly as we feel because of losing the last two matches. However, we must not forget that we had already achieved three consecutive victories before these two matches, and we should not forget that we suffered these two losses in just four days. Now, it is a new round of the league, and it all depends on us. We will play at home but unfortunately the fans will not be behind the team in the stadium stands to support the players and cheer up them to win Ajman team.”
He concluded his statement by stressing that the team “will definitely work hard to win the guests to bring happiness to the team, the club and the fans. We are playing for them and we know that they request us to win the upcoming matches, and we will work hard to fulfill their ambitions by winning Ajman Team.”
