It’s a fair tie after sharing control

The coaches of Kalba, Iraqi Ghazi Fahd Al-Shammari, and Khor Fakkan, Croatian Damir Krznar, described the result of the draw that ended in their confrontation as fair, after the match that brought them together in the 24th round of the professional league, which ended in a goalless draw.

Khor Fakkan raised its score to 26 points in eighth place, while Kalba reached 24 points in eleventh place.

Al-Shammari said in the press conference after the match: “In the first half, we did not perform as required, as Khor Fakkan appeared better in terms of concentration and some technical aspects, and we were not at our usual level.”

He added: “Our performance in the second half clearly improved, and the team performed well, and we succeeded in creating several scoring opportunities, but we were not successful in investing them.”

He pointed out that the team was affected by psychological pressures, saying: “The team in general was affected by psychological pressures related to the struggle for survival, and this is normal at this stage of the season.”

He continued: “We have high-quality players, and we have great confidence in them to achieve better results in the next two matches. We were hoping to achieve victory to make our fans happy in the last match at our stadium, but the psychological pressure had an impact.”

For his part, Krznar said: “We had two different halves, as we controlled the course of play in the first half, and we tried to end the match early, but we did not succeed in converting the opportunities.”

He added: “In the second half, Kalba was relatively better, appeared stronger offensively, and was close to scoring on more than one occasion, which forced us to retreat and organize the lines.”

He continued: “Despite Kalba’s advantage in some periods of the second half, we also had opportunities to score, but the lack of the final touch prevented that, and the result of the tie is fair to both parties.”