Former AFC Champions League winners Al Sadd are expecting a thorough examination of their skill and physical prowess against Mexican giants Monterrey tomorrow when the sides clash for a place in the semi-finals of the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup.
Al Sadd on Wednesday beat Oceania champions Hienghene Sport 3-1 in a match that went into extra time.
The home posted their hard-fought win with goals from Algerian striker Baghdad Bounedjah (26) and defenders Abdelkarim Hassan (100) and Pedro Miguel (114) in the tournament opener at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
Al Sadd coach Xavi, the Barcelona legend with two Club World Cup title wins under his belt, was candid enough to admit his side will not the favourites going into the second clash.
“The problem (to tackle) will be intensity. This kind of team (Monterrey), they play more matches than us. Their rhythm and intensity is different to ours. It will be tough. We will not be favourites for the next match but we will be ready,” Xavi said in his post-match press conference.
“They are doing very well after changing the coach. Antonio Mohamed is doing very well. They are fast with players in the front and they are aggressive,” Xavi added when asked to comment on his opponents tomorrow.
Xavi said he was delighted to see his side create ‘many, many chances’ against Hienghene Sport on Wednesday night.
“It was good to see our players scoring (goals when needed). Yes, it is not usual to see two defenders score key goals. Now we will be playing against Monterrey and that match is more difficult, We have dreams and goals. We have 90 minutes and maybe extra time to qualify for the semi-finals,” Xavi said.
“So we are very excited for the next match,” the Spaniard added.
“All the (Al Sadd) players are in good shape and form. I think the problem was mental (against Hienghene Sport). Now we have to recover the players physically because we played the extra time,” Xavi said.
“We missed more than 30 chances. We created many, many chances. The problem would have been if we had not created the chances. We have to put the ball into the net and we put only one (in the first 90 minutes). We were on the way and we competed well today.
“We could get better against a better side. It could be,” Xavi said when asked if his side could deliver a better performance against Monterrey.
“I think the team felt a little pressure because everyone thought we were better than them (Heignene Sport). Now it is the other way. Now the pressure is on Monterrey, of course. But this is part of football and we can play better than today,” Xavi said.
“I expected them to play beautifully,” Xavi said when asked about the performance of his rival side.
“They won their Champions League. Even being amateurs but their coach is professional and their technical staff is also professional. And everybody works well and everybody plays football really well everywhere. I expected it to be a tough side as I told you in the last press conference. They did a great job and they are winners,” Xavi added.
“We have to recover players. We have two days to rest and recover,” he added.
Felix Tagawa, coach of Hienghene Sport, said Al Sadd played well.
“We made it difficult for ourselves. We missed many chances. The match dragged into the extra time. We did not underestimate Al Sadd at all. The opponents played in an organised level and we will learn from this game,” Tagawa said.
“The match was played on small details. We paid the price for not scoring and we tried to play according to our strategy. Our endeavors were not successful. We allowed them to dominate us.
“My players were very far from each other. That was a major disadvantage to us. That impacted the outcome of the match. The players found it a bit difficult to manage attacks on Al Sadd. The players were not able to get rid of the fear of playing their first match at Club World Cup. At times we were able to carry out attacks but this was not enough to win the match.
“We shouldn’t have played defence for so long. We should have the courage to attack more and tried to create chances. We should continue working on ourselves and we shouldn’t leave the players to themselves. We should provide them the support,” the coach said.
“We should have played offense more. We could not create more chances. We conceded the first goal because of a mistake by a defender. They should have been more free to create counterattacks,” he added.
