Renard: I congratulate Bahrain … and in front of us is the goal of reaching the World Cup

The Saudi coach, Hervé Renard, congratulated the Bahraini team for getting the crown of the Gulf Cup 24, and praised the performance of its players and the technical and administrative staff for their performance during the championship despite losing the title.

He said in the press conference that followed the match: “We lost a penalty kick, and another ball in the crossbar with the start of the first half. Bahrain players were waiting for us, but we received the first goal. This is football, if you do not score from the opportunities, you have to accept the possibility of accepting goals, and this was what really happened. We played and fought to score the equalizer, but we did not succeed.”

He added: “We tried to change the course of the match after Bahrain’s first goal, but the intermittent stopping of the match killed the game. The Bahraini team tried to break any escalation in performance by stopping the game. This was their strategy, and they succeeded in the end in getting what they wanted.”

Renard stressed that taking precedence over the score always gives the winning team the comfort and confidence to continue the match in the appropriate format, and said: “Bahrain scored first, and played the way you wanted. Our players tried to progress and score and provided the best, and they performed well. I congratulate them on it, but in the end they were unable to come back in the result, because the Bahraini team has strengthened its defenses.”

Regarding the absence of Hassan and Khubrani in the match, he said: “Hassan did not recover from the injury, as well as he told me he was in pain and was not ready for this match. The two players performed a great performance in this tournament, and in the end we say we have ahead opportunities. We want to reach the 2022 Qatar World Cup.”