"Al Hilal" coach: "We aim to play in the final of this competition"

Al Hilal head coach Jorge Jesus and defender Kalidou Koulibaly attended a press conference ahead of the Elite Asian Champions League quarter-final match against Pakhtakor.

"Our goal is to play in the final match of this competition. Tomorrow we have a game against a serious opponent. We managed to finish the group stage in first place. In the group stage, we faced strong teams. For example, last season's winner Al Ain. We respect Pakhtakor and we know that tomorrow will be a difficult match, but tomorrow we aim to prevail. We need to return to Riyadh with the result we have set ourselves," said Jorge Jesus.

"We have a very important game tomorrow. We have finished the group stage, and now the playoffs. We will face a serious opponent who rarely concedes goals. We have played away and home games so far. Our goal tomorrow is to win and make our fans happy. They say we are one of the leaders of the competition. We need to prove that these rumors are true. We need to return to Riyadh with a positive result," said Kalidou Koulibaly.

- Mr. Head Coach, you came to Uzbekistan, more precisely to Namangan, a year and a half ago. After that match against Navbahor, you said that Uzbek clubs are quite competitive. What do you expect from Pakhtakor tomorrow? Pakhtakor won only once in the group stage, and that was in the last round...

- There are many differences between the match against Navbahor and tomorrow's match. "Pakhtakor" is a well-formed team under the Portuguese coach. It is wrong to compare the match of a year and a half ago and tomorrow. Despite the difficult match tomorrow, I expect a positive result from my team tomorrow.

Question to Kalidou Koulibaly

- When "Al Hilal" came to play against "Navbahor" a year and a half ago, your teammate Salim Al-Dawsari posted on one of his social networks about the cold weather in Uzbekistan. And the current weather is even colder than during your last trip. Will this negatively affect the performance of the "Al Hilal" team?

- Yes, the weather will be a little unfavorable for us. It is not easy to play in snow and cold, but if we want to win tomorrow, we must be ready for everything. The conditions are not as easy as we expected, but we are ready for everything. The weather and the condition of the field will be the same for both teams. As I said before, our main goal is to please our fans with a victory. I think we should think more about the game.

- Al Hilal will miss tomorrow's match with 6 key players. Will these losses affect your team's performance?

- Yes, we play every three days. It's not easy to play in such a tight schedule. Of course, injuries happen. We lost several players. Playing football in such a short period of time affects the physical condition of the players. The players who will be able to play tomorrow must show their best game. They have a big responsibility.

- Al Hilal will most likely play tomorrow as the number one team. Pakhtakor will try to defend more and play organized football. Have you thought about breaking through Pakhtakor's tight defense? If the opponent starts defending tomorrow, what decision will you make in this situation?

- You know, anything can happen during the game. Therefore, we need to study the opponent thoroughly. Tomorrow we should try to create more chances. This may happen because our players are more skilled, but this is football and anything can happen during the game. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”