Mancini: We are very prepared to meet Jordan and maintain the lead in the group

2024-06-10
15:37:38

The Saudi Arabia national team's technical director, Roberto Mancini, spoke at the press conference held today to talk about Al-Akhdar's preparations to face the Jordanian national team in the sixth and final round of the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.
"Our preparation for the match is great, even after ensuring qualification, because we aspire to remain at the top of the group, and the match will also be against the Jordanian team, runner-up in the Asian Cup.”, Mancini said.
Regarding the importance of continuing in the second level in the Asian classification, he said: “We want to win in order to maintain our current ranking in the second level, and this is important, but the most important thing is to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.”
Mancini justified the reasons for the delay in traveling to Pakistan and said: “It depends on the country you will go to. For example, if you will play in Australia, we will need time to adapt. On the other hand, if the trip is short and close to us, it will have a different arrangement than long distances.”
Regarding the extent of his satisfaction with the technical level of the players over the past period, he said: “The problem with training national teams is that you do not have enough time to work with the players, but we worked well in the period leading up to participation in the 2026 Asian Cup, and now we have a good team and we still have room to work more.”.
Regarding the importance of the fitness tests conducted for the players at the beginning of the camp, he said: “The fitness aspect is important for the players. If the fitness aspect is lacking, it will have an impact on performance. These tests are used to determine the player’s ability, and they do not have any impact on the player’s level of effort”, the coach said.
"We want to know the level of the players’ fitness load after the end of the season after a large number of matches.”, heconcluded.
Regarding the upcoming participation in the Gulf Cup, he said: “We will go to the next Gulf Cup with a strong team. Our goal is to clinch the title.”