Al Ain coach, Argentine Hernan Cerispo, confirmed that his team’s goal is to reach the final stages of the Intercontinental Cup in Qatar, and not be satisfied with what it achieved in the match against Auckland City of New Zealand, the “Oceania champion”.
He said in press statements after the match: “We knew that we would not face an easy team because they are the champions of an entire continent. We were confident of winning because the match would be played at our stadium and among our fans. But it is not easy to win by six goals.”
He added: “What made us happiest was that there were no injuries to any players, and this is the most important thing to me. We want to preserve our players as much as possible, and this is what prompted me to rest a large number of them.”
“We know our goals very well in this difficult season, and we had to expand the base of players participating in the matches, and that is what we did against Auckland City. We gave some players the opportunity because we are in the stage of building a team that has the experience to enable it to participate in heavy-caliber external competitions, and that is what we are doing now.”
He continued: “We have more than a month to go until our match against Al-Ahly of Egypt, and this makes us head towards the local and Asian events that await us, and we work with the same thought and method by continuously giving the opportunity to all our players to appear in the matches in order to rest some of them.”
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