Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz spoke about the victory achieved by Egypt against Senegal on Friday evening in the first leg of the African qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The Egyptian team managed to secure an important win with a single goal in the match held at Cairo Stadium, before facing the return leg on Tuesday at the Diamniadio Stadium in Dakar, Senegal.
In the press conference after the match, Queiroz said: "The match was difficult for both teams as it was about qualifying for the World Cup. We started the match very well and controlled everything." He added, "We scored and then had to withstand waves of Senegalese attacks; the opponent has high individual skills, and we played collectively, creating chances in front of the goal."
He continued, "Senegal had two clear chances against us, and in the end, Egypt deserved to win the match, as we were generally the better team." Regarding the one-goal victory, he mentioned: "The score is still 0-0; the second leg will be open, and every player must give more than 100 percent. We have to play in the return match with 15 or 16 players."
He added, "We all saw what North Macedonia did against Italy; the return match will be very difficult, which is normal." Furthermore, he expressed confusion as to why people were unhappy and not celebrating the victory over Senegal, stating, "We are facing the African champions, a team that has qualified for the World Cup many times. It's normal that we attack sometimes and defend other times."
Regarding his tactical choices in the game, he said, "I have 44 years of experience, have participated in 250 international matches, and I am the only one who qualified four different teams for the World Cup. I am one of the top 10 coaches in the world in achieving positive results." He continued, "My job is to make technical decisions, while the media's job is to criticize my work. I have never discussed my technical decisions with journalists, and if you don't accept that as a journalist, I'll see what you wrote tomorrow and criticize you."
The Egypt coach emphasized, "I have never discussed my technical decisions in my life with journalists. I am like a singer; I sang a song, and you must give your opinion on it, whether it is bad or good." He explained the drop in the team's performance after scoring: "We started well and managed to score, and the opponent, after falling behind, tried to press and advance. We went through tough moments, but after returning to teamwork, we regained control."
He added, "We are facing a team whose players participate in the Champions League. The important thing is not to concede goals. Football is a team game where we face an opponent. I would have hoped to be a singer performing solo in the opera without anyone singing with me, but football is different. The players were very good; when we wanted to play, we played, and when we needed to defend, we did that."
He concluded, "We posed a threat to Senegal from set pieces, and the opponent has football players and others who are over 2 meters tall. I salute Mahmoud Hamdi El-Wench, Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, Yasser Ibrahim, and Mohamed El-Shennawy for facing such tall opponents."
