• Home
• /
• Football

Our attitude was bad at the start, says UAE coach

UAE went down 0-2 to Chile in an international football friendly at the Zayed Sports City on Saturday night. Roberto Cereceda scored off a penalty as early as the fourth minute and Chile doubled it through Pedro Morales in the 37^th minute.

Chile started the game well but UAE were lacking in aggression and that didn’t go down too well with Katanec. They improved their game in the second half.

“The weak point was we didn’t start the way we should have. The players were slow and the attitude was not okay. It is a friendly but we lacked aggression in the first 15 minutes. We could have had a better result and we deserved some goals with the chances that we created,” said Katanec and added: “The start was not okay. We were not at all in the game in the first 15 minutes and we conceded a penalty early in the game. We were a goal down. We played better in the second half and we tried to keep possession. And I managed to give a workout to some of the new players.”

Katanec said the two friendlies assumed importance as he was missing some of his regular first-team players and it gave the new players in the squad a chance to get the feel of the match.

Some of the players are doing duty for the UAE Olympic team which is preparing for the Asian Games while the UAE FA has also asked Katanec not to pick players from Al Wahda so that they can prepare for the FIFA Club World Cup to be held in Abu Dhabi in December.

“This friendly was very important because I got to see many new players. We lost the match and congratulations to Chile but for me what is important is that with many new players coming in and some not being there in the squad, it was a good work out for the new players,” Katanec said and added: “We don’t have some of the players. So I don’t have many choices. But I will have to make do with it. I will give more players a chance in the second game against Angola.”

james@khaleejtimes.com