Dutch Marino Pusic, Al-Ahly coach, expressed his happiness with his team’s strong return against Al-Hazm, and its control over the course of the match, which ended with a 3-1 victory, within the Saudi Professional League.
Pusic said, in the press conference, after the match: “We started the match, shocked by the first goal, but I am happy with our goals, and as soon as we equalized the score, we controlled the course of the match.”
He added: “I would like to thank the players. We created many chances in the second half, and I believe that my team deserves appreciation for what it did today, as we demonstrated a wonderful comeback and high quality in terms of football.”
Regarding the possibility of changing the lineup in the next match and resting some names, Pusic said: “I will see in the next match.”
In turn, Jalal Al-Qadri, Al-Hazm coach, attributed his team’s loss to the fatigue resulting from playing the third match in 6 days, in addition to the injuries that affected a number of his main players, indicating that mental readiness affected his team’s performance during the confrontation.
Al-Qadri said, in the press conference: “We expected the third match in 6 days to be difficult, and we knew that Al-Ahly is one of the major teams, and therefore we realize the difficulty of the confrontation.”
He added: “Al-Ahly’s reaction worried us, especially with the personal mistakes we committed, and in the second half we made some changes, but Al-Ahly was more determined than us.”
Al-Hazm coach pointed out the impact of the absences, saying: “We have 3 injuries to key players that affected us, and we worked with the available names. We have a rest period, and we hope to make the best use of it.”
Al-Ahly regained its balance after its recent loss to Al-Qadisiyah, and snatched an exciting victory from its guest, Al-Hazm, 3/1, on Friday, in the seventh round of the Saudi Professional League. “Al-Ahly” raised its score to 12 points in fifth place, with a difference of 3 points behind “Al-Nasr”, which is in fourth place, and with the same difference behind “Al-Hilal”, which is in third place, awaiting the rest of the results of the seventh round.
On the other hand, Al-Hazm’s balance froze at 8 points in seventh place.
Al-Hazm took the lead in the second minute through Ahmed Al-Nakhili, but Al-Ahly succeeded in equalizing through Francesco Trincao in the 21st minute.
In the 32nd minute, Ivan Toni scored the second goal for Al-Ahly from a penalty kick, then returned to score the third goal in the last minute of regular time in the first half.
The match witnessed Ivan Tony, the Al-Ahly player, missing a penalty kick in the 49th minute, depriving his team of the opportunity to add a fourth goal.
Portuguese Danilo Pereira, Al-Ittihad player, said that he realizes the extent of the ambitions of his club’s fans and that they are “very demanding, and this is normal.”
Danilo said after the victory over Al-Faisaly: “We have to maintain our focus and deal with things in the right way. We know that the league is still going on, and we have a lot of matches ahead of us. Therefore, we must continue working and progressing one match after another until we reach our goal.”
He continued regarding their relationship with the new German coach Vissing: “I do not like making comparisons between coaches. As for his most prominent characteristic, he demands the same thing from all players, and treats everyone equally. “Those who work hard get the same opportunity to participate.”
He continued: “He is also a coach who listens to the players, and this is very important to us, and helps us work to achieve our goals.”
The Portuguese said: “Our next match against Al-Shamal in Qatar will be different from the league matches. Because it comes within the AFC Champions League. We are facing a different tournament, and we must be prepared for this confrontation. “We will go to Qatar to win.”
