Shabab Al-Ahly coach after the loss to Al-Nasr: Sad because of “wasting time”

Al-Ahly’s Portuguese youth coach, Paulo de Sousa, confirmed that his team did not perform as expected against Al-Nasr, especially on the individual level, in the Professional League Cup (Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Cup), during the meeting that brought the two teams together today, Saturday, in the second leg of the quarter-finals.

During the press conference after the match, which ended with Al-Nasr winning on penalties and qualifying for the semi-finals, Souza criticized what he described as “wasting time” during the match, expressing his sadness for this reason, stressing the importance of accelerating the pace of play to improve the level of the match. He stressed the necessity of using foreign arbitrators alongside local arbitrators to enhance the level of arbitration.

He added: “What saddens me is that the match was stopped more than once because of the opposing team’s goalkeeper, as well as because of substitutions, and it was also stopped twice because the match referee reviewed the video technology (VAR) to confirm some arbitration cases.”

The Shabab Al-Ahly coach pointed out that, as a coach, he bears responsibility for the players’ mistakes.