Not winning is “a pain in the heart”

A positive draw (2-2) imposed itself on the confrontation between Ittihad Kalba and Sharjah, which was held on Tuesday evening at Kalba Stadium, within the professional league competitions, in a match that witnessed excitement and technical fluctuations between the two teams.

With this result, Sharjah raised its score to 21 points in eighth place, equal to Ittihad Kalba, which occupies ninth place.

In the press conference after the match, Kalba’s coach, the Iraqi Ghazi Fahd Al-Shammari, confirmed that his team performed at an outstanding level, especially in the first half.

He said: “We started the match well and succeeded in scoring two goals, but the goals we received require a pause from everyone to address them. The players played a great match, and I realize that goals are part of the game, but psychological pressure and individual mistakes were the cause of the goals that we conceded.”

He added: “We were hoping to get the full three points, given the course of the match.”

He continued: “Although a draw against a team as valuable as Sharjah is normal, there is a pain in the heart for not achieving victory, especially with the good performance we presented in the first half,” stressing: “We promise our fans that the upcoming matches will be better in terms of performance and fewer mistakes, as six matches await us, equivalent to six finals, and we must work harder.”

For his part, Sharjah coach, Portuguese Jos de Moraes, described the match as difficult from the start.

He said: “The match started with an unexpected penalty kick, from which Kalba scored a goal, which gave them an early advantage and put psychological pressure on our players, which led to several mistakes, one of which resulted in the second goal.”

He added: “We made changes in the second half and came back better. We achieved balance and succeeded in scoring two goals,” congratulating the players for their reaction.

Moraes expressed his hope that the team would return to achieving victories and advance to a better position in the league standings.