Ferreira: We got a deserved win, our fate is in our hands now

Al-Sadd head coach Jesualdo Ferreira has praised his players, speaking about how his side fully deserved their 2-1 win over Pakhtakor in the AFC Champions League.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Ferreira said: We expected the match to be tough and everyone saw the strength of the opponent. The match did not play out in the way we wanted it to, but we stayed true to our identity and tried to create chances to score and win on merit.”

On Al-Sadd’s chances of qualification after this win, Ferreira said: “The task remains difficult for everyone, because the competition is very intense, even if we defeat Al-Ahli at home. We then have to go to Iran to face Persepolis and everyone knows the strength of Iranian teams when they play in front of their home fans.”

As for the delay in finding the winner, the coach said: “In the game against Persepolis, we got the win in injury time. Everyone on the team knows that if they want the win, they need to fight until the last minute and this is what we did today – and Baghdad was able to score the winner in the 87th minute.”

Asked about his substitutions in the second half, Ferreira said: “The changes in the positions between Yasir and Abdelkarim had a positive effect on the result of the match. All the players performed at a good level and we succeeded in fulfilling our objective, which was to win the game.”