Al Ain coach, Portuguese Pedro Manuel, reserved the timing of the suspension of his sentence against his Togolese player, Lapa Kudjo, just 24 hours before the Sharjah match in the President's Cup semi-finals, which ended yesterday in favor of Al Ain 3-2.
Pedro revealed that Al Ain players refused to change the way they play after stopping Lapa, and they insisted that the match be played with the plan agreed upon before announcing the suspension of the Togolese top scorer.
He said in the press conference, after yesterday’s game: “I will not comment on the laws followed here in such situations, my only reservation is that the behavior was issued by the player last Thursday, and the punishment was taken a day before the match, after we arranged our technical matters on his presence with us, he should have We take note of it well in advance. ”
He added: «We trained one day before the match in the presence of Lapa, and during our presence against Sharjah there was no Lapa, so there was a difference between the two cases, but the players insisted that they play in the same way in which we prepared to meet, and they refused to change them, and they took responsibility with great courage, and they were at the best of expectation Them ».
He continued: "The players made mistakes on both sides, but the most important thing is that we got to the final match, this success was not easy in light of the conditions that the team lived before the match, and also at the level of the level of the competitor, which is characterized by the presence of foreign players, who can make the difference strongly." .
Pedro continued, “I must personally thank Jamal Maarouf. He played a distinguished role in the way we played in the past few days, and he is a player who lives his best period with the club. I also hoped that the fans would be present in Al-Jazira club’s strips, so that they would enjoy as I enjoyed a goal. "Islam Khan, who recorded it beautifully."
Al-Anbari: I do not expect Igor to regain his form this season
Sharjah coach, Abdulaziz Al-Anbari, expected that his Brazilian player, Igor Cornado, will not be able to regain his level in the remaining matches. He said in the press conference yesterday: Igor participated for 45 minutes in the Hatta match in the Arab Gulf League, and complained about the renewed effects of the injury, and he missed the Al-Ain match, because he needs 10 days to recover from the injury, and even if he returns, I do not expect him to regain strength, And the level it was before the ankle operation.
Al-Anbari attributed the reasons for his team's defensive mistakes to the early goal that was received by goalkeeper Adel Al-Hosani's net.
He explained: «This goal made the players rush to attack, which created problems in the back line even after the tie, as we were surprised by two other goals, which created a state of discipline, especially in defense.
He continued, "When you play against a team the size of an eye, it must be a commitment in all lines, in the end the players worked hard, but we missed the last touch."