What did Pedro Moreira say before the match against "Al Hilal"?

Pakhtakor head coach Pedro Moreira and defender Shahzod Azmiddinov attended a press conference ahead of the Elite Asian Champions League quarter-final match against Al Hilal.

"It was an unexpected qualification for us. It will be a difficult match, we will play against a very organized and strong team tomorrow. I didn't talk about it in the last press conference, but we aim to get stronger from game to game. Tomorrow we will play the first match of the play-offs. The reason we have reached this match is the hard work we did last season. I would also like to thank Maxim Shatskikh.

Thanks to the skill shown by the players in the match against Al Sadd, we continue our progress. I expect a difficult match against one of the strongest teams in Asia. Our opponent is one of the teams that has won the most in this competition. Despite the cold weather, we will try to please the fans and I am sure that my team will play well tomorrow," said Pedro Moreira.

Shahzod Azmiddinov

"We studied the opponent's strengths and weaknesses with our head coach. Based on this, we will try to adequately defend the honor of "Pakhtakor" in tomorrow's match."

- The results of the "Al Hilal" team in recent matches are not very encouraging. You said that we studied the opponent well. If you could elaborate on the strengths and weaknesses of "Al Hilal"...

- We are playing against a very, very strong team. Last season, "Al Hilal" recorded an unbeaten streak and set a record. The head coach of the team is the coach who has won the most awards among the coaches participating in this competition. The team plays fantastic quality football. We respect "Al Hilal", but we also need to show what we are capable of. We need to show what we are capable of and what kind of football we can play. To be honest, we didn't expect to easily advance to the next round. Now we need to show our strength.

Al Hilal finished the group stage in first place and they have an average of 60% possession in each match. We will fight for our chances. We also have plans. As I said earlier, we aim to create a stable future for Pakhtakor and results in games like this will help us achieve our goal.

- Mr. Head Coach, Pakhtakor will play against the strongest team in Asia tomorrow. Will your team play more defensively tomorrow or will you try to play as evenly as possible with the opponent? For example, in the last press conference you said that Pakhtakor always aims to be dominant and play attacking football. Will you continue to follow this philosophy in tomorrow's match?

- We have to approach each match and each opponent differently. We work according to our plan, but the game may not always go according to the scenario we want. We have to be prepared for different developments in the match. We have studied every detail of tomorrow's match.

We know what kind of opponent we are playing against. If the opponent puts pressure, we have to adapt to the pressure. If we have an opportunity, we have to take it. If we have the ball, we have to keep it as long as possible. Through such actions, we offer the opponent a fight. It is true that we will play against one of the main favorites to win the match tomorrow, but if we want to continue our participation in the competition, we have to fight.

- Mr. Moreira, you did not answer the main question. Will Pakhtakor choose a defensive style tomorrow or can we see open football? For example, Navbahor faced Al Hilal two seasons ago. At that time, Navbahor played defensively and defended for almost 85 minutes, but despite this, the Namangan team took a point from Al Hilal.

- We need to understand one thing. In football, all teams want to win every match, but it doesn't always happen that way. Tomorrow we will play against one of the strongest teams in the region. If we have the ball, we will offer our game to the opponent. We will try to play attacking football to the best of our ability.

For example, in the match against Al Gharafa, we did not create any chances at all. However, in the match against Al Sadd, we had chances and were able to change our game. I promise, we will try to play as open a game as possible. The rest depends on the opponent. Al Hilal has a fantastic team and has 60% possession. They attack well, defend well and press well. Everything is at the highest level. We need to understand what kind of strong team we are going to play against. Only then can we use our weapons.

Question to Shahzod Azmiddinov

- Al Hilal's main striker Aleksandar Mitrovic will miss tomorrow's match due to injury. However, the second striker of the Saudi champion, Marcos Leonardo, has scored 15 goals this year. This is a "terrible" figure. In general, how will the Pakhtakor defenders stop Al Hilal's attackers tomorrow?

- We are 100% ready for the match. We know that Al Hilal is the strongest team in Asia and has TOP players in the team, but we also want to show ourselves positively and keep our goal intact.

Question to Shahzod Azmiddinov

- It snowed in our city today and the weather is quite cold. Can this give us an advantage in tomorrow's match? Al Hilal players are not used to playing football in this weather...
- Tomorrow, 11 players from two teams will take to the field and the teams will play football on the same field. I think this can be a small advantage for us.

- Before the match against Al Sadd, you said that all the attention was focused on this match. That is, the team thought and prepared only for Al Sadd for a week. Was the preparation against Al Hilal the same? For example, in terms of approach, passion and attention...

- We need to create the football version that we want to show. This way we can have the most ideal style of play for ourselves. We tried this in Antalya. We also need to be a more adaptive and flexible team. We need to know our philosophy and, in addition, be prepared for the games of different opponents. You cannot participate in such a competition without motivation.

- Pakhtakor's young player Muhammadali Urinbayev is in great shape right now. Will Urinbayev be given a chance soon?

- Urinbayev is a very talented player, but I've only worked with him in two training sessions. Urinbayev is not yet as ready as we need him to be. I've seen many talented players in Uzbekistan. We have a lot of strong players in our team, and each player needs to prove that he deserves a place in the starting lineup. If Urinbayev is needed by us in tomorrow's match, I'm ready to give him a chance. You have a lot of quality and ambitious young players, but they need to prove regularly what kind of talented players they are. Every player needs to show their ambitions on the field. If they show it on the field, I'll give them a chance. I don't care about the player's age or passport. I care about the player's performance on the field. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”