THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: FC Goa under Juan Ferrando are at their best so far. They produced results beyond expectations in the AFC champions League recording two draws on trot earning two points in the Asia’s elite club competition.
While these results and FC Goa’s performances might have surprised us, Coach Ferrando wasn’t stunned at all. Reason? He knows his team better than all of us do.
“I’m not surprised by the way my team played today, because I know them well and this is expected from them. What is important is that we improve after each match day.” Stated Juan Ferrando while speaking during the post match following their goalless draw against Al Wahda on Saturday.
“I’m very happy with the way we moved the ball in the final third,” said Juan Ferrando. “The players are tired after the match but we need to improve and change things up for the next match.
The Spaniard is already looking forward to Tuesday's tie against group leaders Persepolis FC of Islamic Republic of Iran, saying that a change in tactics is the best way to adapt to AFC Champions League football.
“It is necessary to change the tactics, improve and prepare the players for the next game. We will not take things lightly into thinking we are a strong team. The players are obviously tired and tomorrow when they’ve had rest, we will go through the tactics again and explore what can be improved,” he added.
“But you need to remember that we have Persepolis next. That are four more matches to play, so it is important to control emotions. We need to stay calm and composed because this is the AFC Champions League and we’re going up against the best teams in the Continent.”
Fc Goa put a much improvised performance as compared to their first match. "We were playing against a very good team. All the teams in the (Asian) Champions League are the best in Asia. I'm happy to get some points in attack. We were better in positional attack. But the players are very tired,”
FC Goa highlighter certain areas of the game and stated that there is room for improvement. “We had chances but so did they. In the end, it was a good game because both teams had chances. The big problem was to control the ball in the box. These details are big but normal. In the end, I'm not so worried because we can improve," said the Spaniard.
