The Portuguese national team coach, Paulo Bento, confirmed that “Al-Abyad” faced great difficulty in preparing for the match against Kuwait in the Gulf Championship due to the lack of time, noting that the preparations took place in the meeting room for a long time, explaining that the great pressure of the matches harms all the teams participating in the tournament and not the UAE national team. only.
Pinto said during the press conference on Monday: “There is not enough time to prepare between matches. We finished the match on Saturday, while Sunday is a rest for the players, and today we are conducting main training for the Kuwait match,” adding: “The situation is not ideal for preparing for matches, but if these are the rules of the tournament, then Dealing with it and trying to prepare for the matches.”
He continued: “Being in the tournament and being nominated to win the title does not represent any pressure on the players or the technical staff. We only play the matches in our own way and deal with the players according to a certain mechanism. Whether we are nominated for the title or not is something that does not help us in the preparations and I do not think about it much. The technical staff does not feel pressure and we have Many experiences, including the World Cup and the Asian Cup.”
Regarding his presence in the tournament for the first time, and whether he expected this public and media momentum to face Kuwait, the host and the record holder for the number of times they won the tournament, Pinto said: “I certainly participated in major tournaments in the World Cup and the Asian Cup and any combined tournament is expected to be in it.” This great media momentum… We will play a difficult match against the home team, which has won the title 10 previous times, and this will put pressure on the Kuwaiti national team, not us.”
. .
