Portuguese coach Pedro Emanuel, manager of Al-Fayha's first football team, expressed his deep dissatisfaction and profound sadness following his team's crushing defeat against Al-Hilal, with a score of four goals to one, in the match that brought them together as part of the seventeenth round of the Saudi Professional League.
Controversial refereeing decision and a turning point in the match
In the post-match press conference, Emanuel highlighted a pivotal moment that he believes changed the course of the game, pointing to refereeing decisions that negatively impacted his team. The Portuguese coach said, "We faced a very tough opponent, but small details make all the difference. The referee stopped play and awarded the ball to Al-Hilal without any clear or convincing reason, and from that play, the opponent won a corner kick, which led to their second goal that disrupted the balance of the match.".
Al-Hilal's historic winning streak
The Al-Fayha coach addressed the difficulty of the task against a team that is experiencing its best period technically, as he pointed to the general context of Al-Hilal's strength this season, saying: "We are talking about facing the league leader who entered the match with an amazing series of 20 consecutive victories in various competitions. This number reflects the enormous quality that the Blue team possesses, while we entered the match suffering from a negative series that extended to seven matches without tasting the taste of victory.".
Quality differences and the brilliance of Ruben Neves
Emanuel didn't neglect to praise the quality of the opposing players, emphasizing the clear technical differences. He specifically mentioned Portuguese star Ruben Neves, explaining that the quality of his passes and movement was crucial in creating and scoring Al-Hilal's goals. He added, "We tried to be courageous and daring, and we did succeed in scoring the first goal and disrupting their plans, but the high technical quality of Al-Hilal's players, especially Neves, decided the match in their favor.".
Pushing young players and putting pressure on the calendar
Regarding his handling of the second half, the Al-Fayha coach explained that Al-Hilal's reorganization after the 60th minute forced him to think about the future, saying: "We tried to inject new blood by including young players to give them the opportunity to gain experience in such big matches. We must be realistic, if we had players of the same quality as Al-Hilal, the situation would be different, but we are working with what we have.".
Pedro Emanuel concluded his remarks by pointing to the physical challenge facing his team, noting the immense pressure of matches that Al-Fayha is going through, as the team has to play three tough matches in just six days, stressing his desire to rest some of the key players in preparation for the upcoming match against Al-Fateh, in an attempt to correct the course and return to winning ways.
