Sapinto: It is difficult to play against a team that defends a bus / I don’t know which match Hosseini saw?

According to the sports reporter of Fars News Agency, after Esteghlal’s goalless draw against Pikan, Ricardo Sapinto stated in a press conference: “I must say about the game, we appeared very strong in the first half.” We pressed too high and didn’t let them play. We controlled the opponent in the first half. In the beginning of the game, we lost many chances and opportunities. We performed well in combination games and we need to improve our finishing and scoring.

The head coach of Esteghlal said: “It is very difficult to play against a team that defends like a bus.” They were waiting for us to make a mistake and take advantage of it. Sometimes we really wanted to catch the ball and throw it into the goal. They were defending with 9 players. They also defended well, but the reality is that if you can’t score in the first 30 minutes, the game will be different. The only thing we didn’t do was score, if you look at the statistics, we were much ahead of the opponent, but against a team that defends like a bus, really It’s hard to play.

Esteghlal head coach noted: Now we have to strengthen ourselves, we have to do well in finishing the ball by strengthening ourselves in the offensive part. We are very sad that we lost 2 points in the home game. We could go higher and towards the top of the table with these points. We deserved to win the game, but it’s football and if you don’t score, you don’t win.

Sapinto about the lack of patience of the fans in Iranian football and that after the meeting with Pikan, they protested against this team’s not playing well and even used the word “ungenerous” for the players of his team. At the beginning of the season, when he announced that he would bring four championships to Esteghlal, he said: (At this moment, Mohammad Hossein Zarandi, the media director of Esteghlal, announced: Sapinto never said that I would bring four trophies. I had already explained that they asked him if can you bring four cups he replied i will try it will happen). The fans have loved us and they want us to win, and we have come to win. I work with all my heart to get independence. I don’t believe in luck, but I believe in work and effort. We have to play in a way that deserves independence.

He added: We must always play to win and play positive football. However, we must strengthen ourselves. But we do many good things easily. If we had scored 2-3 goals in the first half of this game, it would have been a different game. Like me, the fans want this team to win. We will see the game and we will work on the weak and strong points and we will continue our efforts. We will continue to fight and we believe in becoming heroes.

The coach of Esteghlal stated regarding his objections to the refereeing and the rejection of a goal by the blue-clad players during this match: If you watch the game again, there were small mistakes and it was 50-50 in their favor. They wasted a lot of time and their goalkeeper wasted time too. There was also a penalty that I saw, that scene was clear. The referee was also close to the stage. The defender of Pikan touched the ball with his hand, but then he made a mistake at the expense of our team. In every game, like the meeting with Sepahan, Naft Masjid Suleiman, etc., mistakes were made against us and they took our points in this match as well.

Sapinto continued: “Now is the time when the referees have to improve their performance because they are taking away our chances and these conditions are difficult for independence.” I hope they do well in the next game. In the game against Naft Masjid Sulaiman, I said that we had three good teams, not because we didn’t win, but the kids did a good job. The referee’s decision had an effect on the outcome of the game.

He explained that Esteghlal has lost seven points out of 15 points, but did he have any strategy for the defense line of the arrow bus in the future if a teammate wants to defend against his students like this, will they be able to win or will these draws continue? : We have to continue our way and try. We will have more games. If we didn’t have chances and opportunities against these teams, it’s not true. We had chances and opportunities even against a team that defends a bus, but we have to work on finishing the balls and we will continue this work. God willing, luck will be with us.

Regarding Mojtaba Hosseini’s statement that his team created many opportunities and the blue-clad team did not have many chances or created opportunities randomly, Esteghlal head coach said: He has his own opinion, which I respect. Maybe he has forgotten, but if he sees the statistics, he will see that Esteghlal exchanged 600 passes against Pikan’s 100 passes. We shot 17 shots and had 10 chances and I don’t know what game Hosseini has seen. Never mix things up.

Sapinto continued: “When you have a home game and you want to win, you have to accept responsibility and sometimes take risks.” Maybe the opponent has 2-3 opportunities in each game, but we have to take risks at times. This does not mean that the opponent deserves points. They are just waiting for such situations. The Iranian league is really competitive and they have very good teams. These teams are organized and good and they fight. They also worked well and were fighters. They played a tight game. As I said before, every match is difficult and we have to strengthen ourselves. We have to work on finishing the ball. God willing, the issue will be resolved.

Regarding the steady play of Mohammad Mohebi, Peyman Babaei and Mehdi Qaidi against Pikan and that he will use these three golden triangles again in future matches, he said: “We are still working.” We have to find our strengths and weaknesses by watching the game and use them. As I said before, Mehdi Qaidi was included in the starting line-up for the first time, but he is still not fully ready. Other players are also like this. As a coach, I like to play with my best players. I am looking for a very good system to use very good players.

Esteghlal head coach noted: Today I gave all my thoughts to the team, but you saw that we used Kevin Yamaga as a right defender and finished the game with a different system. We started with 4-3-3 and finished this match with 4-4-2. It was an alternate system that we had been working on this week.

Sapinto added: We had also worked on the difficulties and challenges of this system. We will work on opportunities so that we can use them to score points and win games. Other players are just as important as the ones you mentioned. We have many players in the team. We are looking for the best time to put the best players in the squad based on our tactics.

He stated: We didn’t win, but we did a lot of good things. We will get better game by game because the players will gradually reach the optimal conditions.

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