Santos: "It's Natural to Go Through a Difficult Period, Tomorrow We Will Respond on the Field Against Al Ahly"

Alexandre Santos, head coach of AS FAR, affirmed that his team will respond on the pitch tomorrow, Friday (20:00 GMT+1), against Egypt's Al Ahly in their CAF Champions League group stage second-round match.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Santos stated: “It’s interesting that the analyses or criticisms directed at my playing style often point to the opposite: many chances, many attacks, but without scoring many goals. The only match we played defensively was against Young Africans.”

He continued: “I don’t see that as a negative, but the most important thing now is tomorrow’s match, and we must deliver a good collective performance. We didn't intentionally play defensively; rather, the first half of the previous match was extremely difficult. In the second half, we tried to improve things and partially succeeded, but we didn't achieve the result we desired.”

Santos added: “What should be done now? We must continue our journey. We have played 13 matches, 12 of which were offensive, with high collective quality, a large number of chances and shots, while conceding very few goals. We only conceded our fourth goal this season in Tanzania, in Zanzibar, which is a positive indicator of our level.”

He concluded: “The players need to believe in their project. They train hard and will deliver their response on the field. It’s natural for any team to go through a difficult period in a season, but the key is how to respond to these moments. We are here today for our final training session on our home ground, preparing for tomorrow, which will be the ideal time to show this response, as we have done many times this season and even last season. We are focused on overcoming this difficult phase as one team.”