Spaniard Jose Ribeiro refused to think about the lost opportunities that his Al-Ahly team lost in its draw with Porto 4-4 at the “Metlive” stadium in New York in the third round of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup, considering that “we must win” when scoring 4 goals.
“When we score 4 goals in such a match, we must win. The most difficult is to score and do it four times today and we should not think about lost opportunities,” said Ribeiro, who received Al -Ahly training after the team won the domestic league title in late May, during the press conference that followed the draw with Porto and leaving the World Cup clubs after the first group ranking.
Palmeiras qualified Brazilian, leading the group, beating the runner-up Inter American, after they tied 2-2.
The Palestinian, Wissam Abu Ali, scored 3 goals for his team, and the Tunisian Mohamed Ali bin Ramadan added a fourth goal, but the team wasted a set of opportunities, the most dangerous of which was the Moroccan alternative Ashraf Bin Sharqi in the last minutes.
Commenting on the difference between the first two games, his team failed to score, and the third full of goals, “I think we are talking about different matches, different approaches and different opportunities to score. There is no big link between each match and another in the group stage.
“We faced a distinguished group and a team crowned with the Champions League twice. We performed a distinguished performance in the first half. In general, we are Al -Ahly and we will not go up with two points, and now it is the time to analyze performance. We have not had a required time to prepare for the competition, and we focus on the future.”
Ribeiro touched on the experience in the World Cup clubs, saying, “The experience was great for the coach to be part of such a competition with the best coaches. It is an opportunity to continue learning. The truth is that the rhythm of the match is different (from local competitions), and it also differs outside the field to prepare for the matches. It was an opportunity to get to know the players compared to what the situation was 3 weeks ago.”
“I was preferred to qualify to score these three goals. After years I will feel proud, but today we made an effort to cross to the next round and we were close. I am proud of my team and everyone.”
“We have a good team and a good group and has a good momentum. It takes some time to adapt, and today this appeared and we are consistent with each other. I expected to qualify because we have a number of good players and a large audience, but that was not enough.”