The Greek Donis, the coach of the Saudi national team, stressed the importance of winning the opening match against Kuwait and getting the three points in “Gulf 27”.
Denis said during the press conference after the confrontation: First, I congratulate you on the occasion of Saudi National Day, and I would like to congratulate the large fans who were beside us and supported us from the first second until the end of the match. This was our first match today and it was very important for us to win; The players did their best, but we must improve our decisions in difficult moments, as we have quality and brilliant players.”
He added: We created many chances today, but we have to address this problem step by step. We don't want to create 22 chances and score just one goal. Rather, we want to create five good chances and score from them. It is good that we continue to create big chances, but our team must make the right decisions at the right time inside the opponent's penalty area.
He explained: I have been in Saudi Arabia since 2015, and I recently spent 8 years here, and I know the amount of opportunities the national team created in the past. For me, the team was great at the World Cup, and I think we performed well against Spain, and to some extent against Cape Verde.
In response to a question about evaluating offensive performance and the decline in scoring compared to chances, Donis explained: When we want to analyze something, we have to look at it from both sides. Sometimes it is difficult to score because chances are not created in the first place, but today we created many of them, and we made the right decisions at times while we were not able to do so at other times. The most important thing is to gain the confidence and calm that enables us to make the appropriate decision. We now have different generations of experienced and young players, and we are trying to find the right balance between them.
Regarding the brilliance of Hammam Al-Hammami, Denis pointed out: We have to be realistic when talking about our players, such as Hammam Al-Hammami, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, and Musaab Al-Jawir. These players need enough playing minutes with their clubs to gain confidence in their abilities. Abdullah Al-Hamdan is often a reserve, and Hammam did not participate much, nor did Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, who received limited minutes with his club. Players really need to participate with their clubs to gain confidence in their skills.
Al-Akhdar coach added, commenting on hiring Hammam and giving him confidence: I try to give the players confidence and calm in the national team, and this is one of my priorities, and they can gain that match after match. Hammam was not playing as a left winger in Al-Shabab Club due to the presence of Yannick Carrasco, but when Carrasco was injured, Hammam participated in this position and gave a distinguished performance. I told him before the match: “Don’t try to prove anything,” and he actually gave a very special performance.”
Regarding the upcoming confrontation against the Omani national team, Denis stressed: “I believe that we have a better and stronger team, and we will try with all our strength to achieve victory in the next match.”
Mohamed Salah, captain of the Egyptian national football team, thanked the Egyptian state and the Egyptian Football Association for their support of the team before facing Angola in the first round of the second group of qualifiers for the 2027 African Cup of Nations.
Salah said, during the visit of Gohar Nabil, the Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sports, to the (Pharaohs) team’s training session, that the team has achieved successes that have pleased the Egyptian people since the start of the work of the technical staff led by Hossam Hassan and Ibrahim Hassan three years ago and presented an honorable image of Egyptian football.
He added that he is always keen to remind the players that they should be proud of what they have presented and make every effort to continue making the Egyptian fans happy.
The Egyptian Minister of Youth and Sports had visited the national team’s training session before facing Angola and was received by Hani Abu Rida, President of the Egyptian Football Association.
The minister conveyed to the players the greetings of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, stressing the state’s continued support for the national teams.
Nabil praised the development of the team's performance and the spirit of its players during the recent period, and said that its match against Argentina received wide attention and demonstrated its ability to confront and compete with major teams.
The minister expressed his confidence in the players and the technical staff and their ability to make a strong start in the qualifiers and make the Egyptian fans happy.
The confrontation with Angola will be the first for the Egyptian national team after its historic participation in the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada in the summer of this year, which witnessed the team qualifying for the round of 16 in the World Cup for the first time, before suffering a dramatic loss with a score of 2/3 against its Argentine counterpart in the last moments, after it was ahead of the world champions at the time with a score of 2/0, a few minutes before the end of the match.
It is noteworthy that the second group of the 2027 African Nations qualifiers in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda also includes the teams of Malawi and South Sudan.
The Saudi national team continued to consolidate its victories in the history of the Gulf Football Cup, after beginning its participation in the twenty-seventh edition by defeating Kuwait with a free goal, raising its tally to 61 victories in the history of its participation in the tournament, to continue to retain the lead of the teams with the most wins.
After facing Kuwait, Al-Akhdar played 118 matches in the Gulf Cup through his participation in 26 editions, emerging victorious in 61 of them, compared to 25 draws and 32 losses, bringing his percentage of victories to about 51.7 percent of his total matches.
The Saudi national team raised its historic scoring tally in the tournament to 177 goals, after Yousef Al-Haqqan’s reverse ball gave Al-Akhdar the winning goal in the opening match, while Al-Akhdar’s net maintained its previous tally of 114 goals, after Nawaf Al-Aqidi and Mohammed Al-Owais succeeded in ending the match without conceding a single goal.
Thus, the historical scoring difference for Saudi Arabia in the Gulf Cup became +63 goals, after it scored 177 goals compared to 114 goals conceded, at a rate of approximately 1.5 goals per match.
On the other hand, the loss to Saudi Arabia raised the number of defeats for the Kuwaiti team in the history of the tournament to 36 losses during the 121 matches it played in its 27 participations, compared to 59 victories and 26 draws.
Kuwait's offensive tally stopped at 206 goals, while the number of goals it conceded rose to 120 after the only goal of the match, leaving a large historical goal difference of +86 goals.
Although Kuwait maintained its historical superiority in terms of the number of goals scored with 206 goals, Saudi Arabia continued its superiority in the most prominent indicator related to the number of victories, after it reached 61 victories compared to 59 for Kuwait, widening the difference between them to two victories.
