‘We must be stronger now’: Sousa

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa called on the Kingdom’s senior men’s national football team to take the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 as another opportunity to perform at their best and continue their impressive development over the past two-and-a-half years.

The Arab Cup is scheduled to get underway tonight in Doha and the Bahrainis will be in action right away.

They are set to take on the host Qataris at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor in a Group A match scheduled to kick off at 7.30 pm.

Speaking in his pre-match Press conference yesterday, Sousa commented: “This tournament is a fantastic moment for us to keep developing our way of playing, to keep developing our national team.

“We will face three strong teams from the Gulf.

We haven’t played recently against Qatar but the other two teams we have faced.

“The environment of the tournament, the high quality and level of all the teams, and what is beside and behind the tournament is different.

This different way of living is very important to our players’ spirit, the environment of the fans too we know will be fantastic.

“This is the best moment and the best environment for us to keep growing up against really strong teams.”

Sousa said that tonight’s clash with Qatar will likely be their toughest fixture in Group A of the preliminary round.

The Portuguese tactician says the Qataris have gained plenty of valuable experience over the past couple of years, having won the 2019 Asian Cup and also participating as invitees in the 2019 Copa America, European World Cup qualification games, and in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“Qatar will be a very difficult game,” Sousa said.

“In these short tournaments, the first game is very important, and against the home team, with the environment of the fans that we missed a lot in the last two years, it will be very good for us.

We must take that experience and take advantage of that.

“Qatar has come a long way.

They are now the most experienced team in the world with the possibility of playing on different continents and the most important competitions of each continent.

They have grown a lot and it has been amazing for them these last two years.

“But at the end of the day, the game starts zero-zero.

 We will prepare the best we can to defeat them and try to win the game, as ever.”

Sousa highlighted that the national team must forget everything they have done in the past and focus only on the road ahead.

“What we got in the past is a great way to prepare for the future; what we did not get, it is the same way—we analyse this and we see where we are stronger and what we weren’t able to perform at a high level, and then we try to put that performance higher.

“Our focus is winning the next game—whether they are friendly games, competition tournament games, qualifier—all the time try to perform at our best level.

“It will not be enough what we did in the past.

We must be stronger now.”

The other teams in Bahrain’s group are Iraq and Oman.

After their game today, Bahrain take on Iraq on Friday and then face Oman on December 6.

The top two squads at the end of a single round-robin advance to the knockouts.