Sanchez: I have absolute confidence in the players

Spanish coach Felix Sanchez, coach of Qatar, has confirmed his players’ confidence.

He told the news conference before facing Yemen: “After the first game there was a short period of recovery. We are prepared for the Yemen’s game and I have to choose the best players, and everyone knows and understands the importance of the game.”

He continued: “We tried to score goals and we were disappointed after the Iraq game despite the opportunities that we had. We hope this will change against the Yemen’s game, and we hope to win and score goals.”

Commenting on the Yemen’s game: “The two teams did not score a good result in the first round. There is no easy match in the tournament and we know this well. We expect a highly competitive game tomorrow and we will enter in order to win, and the players have all the enthusiasm and motivation.”

He added: “Our goal with Iraq was to win, and also for Iraq they worked very hard and won fairly at the end. Luck did not stand with us.”

When you have an injured player like Bassam, it makes it more difficult because his existence was important inside and outside the field,” said Sanchez. “We have enough players and we will try to achieve the goal our fans expect from us. I have full confidence in the players and they are fully committed, and they are thirsty to achieve positive results. We will give 100% to achieve results and provide the best performance, and most importantly to be fully committed and focused.”

Sanchez rejected the idea that Qatar’s performance has been declining recently. “I do not think our performance is going down. We played tough games in Asia, Cuba and America and, step by step, we will be on the right track to deliver the best possible results,” he said. “I did not complain of the performance against Iraq, but I think the players preformed a good match. All we needed was victory.”