Ferreira: Congrats to Al-Jazira but Al-Sadd deserved to go through
Ferreira: Congrats to Al-Jazira but Al-Sadd deserved to go through
09 Feb 2016
Al-Sadd SC football first team head coach Jesualdo Ferreira has stressed that his team was more deserving of a spot in the group stage of the 2016 AFC Champions League after the shootout defeat to Al-Jazira in the playoff match held on Tuesday.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Ferreira said: “We were worthy of the win and qualification for the group stages after the strong performance and the excellent show we put up at the home stadium of Al-Jazira.”
The Portuguese added: “Al-Jazira were better in the second half, during its first 20 minutes but we were able to return to the match and we had a strong reaction (to their goal). We managed to score the equalizer at the death but we wasted the opportunity to win in the final moments after Khalfan missed the penalty.”
The Al-Sadd coach went on to say: “We were better technically and this was clear from the beginning of the game. Al-Jazira used the set pieces very well and scored the two goals from a corner kick and a free kick. Their team was lucky to score at the end of the first half which ended 1-1. This is what gave them a push although we were the better side in the first half; we had chances to increase our score.”
Ferreira added that “luck is very important. It always plays a role in the results. But in football, there are other things like the opponent and other technical things. In my personal opinion, Al-Sadd played better but luck was not with us.”
He also said: “We tried to exploit the opportunities that we got but unfortunately, luck was not in our favour, even during the penalty shootout which denied us the group stage qualificiation which we deserved. In the end, this is football and we congratulate Al-Jazira on their qualification for they are a big and famous team; they have their history..Although I am still of the opinion that having the playoff as a one-off match is not fair, we respect the rules of the AFC no doubt. But that is my opinion.”