Bahrain must exploit Japan’s weaknesses: Pizzi

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain will need to exploit the weaknesses of Japan when the two sides face off today in the round of 16 of the AFC Asian Cup in Doha.

This was highlighted yesterday by the Kingdom’s senior men’s national team head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi, who acknowledged that Japan are one of the strongest teams in the continent, but added that Bahrain will compete to the best of their abilities.

“Japan are a tough team with a lot of strengths, but they have weaknesses that we need to exploit in order to be able to come out on top,” Pizzi was quoted as saying in his pre-game Press conference yesterday.

“Hopefully we will be able to implement our philosophy.” The game against Japan is scheduled for a 2.30pm kickoff, Bahrain time, at Al Thumama Stadium.

It will see the nationals face another opponent who are amongst the top four highest-ranked in Asia.

Prior to their clash with the Japanese, who are number one in the continent, the Bahrainis faced third-best South Korea in a 1-3 loss, and also had a friendly against fourth-ranked Asian side Australia, in which they went down 0-2.

“We learned a few lessons from the game against Korea Republic and before the tournament we also played Australia; when you compete against big national teams this makes the team stronger collectively and individually,” said Pizzi.

Expectations

“Unfortunately the results of these two matches were not up to our expectations but we still felt comfortable because the level was high and it reassured us that we can compete against anybody.”

Meanwhile, skipper and defender Waleed Al Hayyam stressed that Bahrain are ready to step up to the challenge.

“We have great respect for Japan, and our focus will be 1,000 percent,” Al Hayyam said. “We need to be patient, and hopefully, we will deliver our best. “We are going into the match to win, regardless of who the opponents are. The priority is to win every match; there are no big opponents, and we respect Japan. Hopefully, it will be a good match for us.”

Al Hayyam is hopeful of following in the footsteps of others and pulling off another upset in the tournament. He commented: “We know what we must do.

We all saw how Iraq defeated Japan, who were favourites in that match and then, we saw Jordan defeat Iraq (in the round of 16).

Iraq were the favourites but lost. “We will go into the match fully focused on delivering a good performance. The dressing room atmosphere is fantastic.

We have a lot of players with experience, and we are ready and looking forward to it