Hervé Renard: Kuwait match is the most important

Saudi Arabia coach Hervé Renard has called the match against Kuwait in the Gulf 24 as the most important in the course of the tournament for him.

“We are happy to participate in this tournament, although we are delayed and the Hilal players have joined recently, yet we will try to walk steady at the tournament,” he told the news conference.

Regarding the Kuwait game, he stated: “We know we will play against a good team and we have to be ready for tomorrow’s game which is the most important for us in the tournament despite some absences and circumstances, but we will try to provide a good picture of Saudi football.”

As to the absence of Al Owais and Al Buraik, he said: “Unfortunately, the two players were injured recently and most of the players participated on Sunday in the final of the AFC Champions League and some of them participated on Saturday in the league championship and this will affect the national team to be honest, but football always has its own circumstances but we have to act in the best possible way.”

He continued: “We knew about the participation in the Gulf Cup after the game against Uzbekistan, and we played a very outstanding performance and as promised got a precious victory from Tashkent and then played against Paraguay without the Hilal players and we provided a good defensive performance but were not succeeded in the attack.”

“We do not have any expectations at the moment. All I am focusing on is the match against Kuwait. I only got 12 players in addition to the goalkeepers in the previous training and I will see what will happen tomorrow,” he said.