Hélio Sousa: A tough confrontation awaits us

Bahrain coach Hélio Sousa has denied the impact of the late participation in the team’s readiness and stressed that things are going well in terms of preparations.

“We are ready to face Oman and, as far as I know, it has a great history. They won the last version of the championship and they are good, but we are ready too.”

He added: “The Bahraini team is one of the founders of the Gulf Championship and has reached the golden box four times and has not achieved the Gulf title. We are here to play good and achieve something for Bahrain.”

About preparing for the tournament: “We are well prepared to win every game. The first game is very important. Our goal is to reach the semi-finals and then think about winning the title.”

On the presence of many European coaches in the tournament and the similarity of their philosophy: “My players are able to apply the identity that we have worked for in the past periods. We had a training camp in Barcelona and then played many different Asian games, and we have a great ambition to develop our style. Every coach has his own style and philosophy, and that is because of his career, experience and experience in the stadiums.”

Concerning the impact of the late participation on the readiness of the team, Sousa said: “We participate in this competition in order to continue to build the team. We are developing at every stage and we know what our players need and this tournament came at the right time. Our goal is to win and we have to fight for victory. Moral preparation is very important at this stage.”

With reference to facing Oman: “It is a difficult game, they are the champions. For two or three years they have improved their global rankings in FIFA and they have several strengths.”