The home defeat (0-2) against Japan in the World Cup qualifiers worsened the climate in Saudi Arabia. The federal president Yasser Al-Meshal felt obliged to apologize to the fans on TV, Roberto Mancini appeared nervous in the press conference, also because he had to answer some provocative questions.
“She earns a lot but her team plays badly…”
The first from a Japanese journalist: “You take a very high salary (over 20 million net per year until 2027, ndr) and yet his team doesn’t perform well on the pitch…”. A statement not appreciated by the former Italian coach who interrupted his interlocutor even before he completed the sentence and replied: “Do you happen to want to see my bank account?”. Then he replied in this way to an Arab reporter who contested the deployment on the pitch: “First you asked me to play with 4 defenders, and this is the current formation, and now you ask me why I play this way…” Finally he complained to the leaders of the Saudi championship: “If we struggle (4 points in 3 matches in group C, ndr) is also because more and more foreigners are playing in the league. And this is a problem for the national team.”
Objective of qualification for the 2027 World Cup and Asian Cup
Since taking over as coach of the Arab national team in September 2023, Mancini has so far collected 7 victories in 17 matches. In addition to qualifying for the World Cup, they aim to create a close-knit group that can do well in the next Asian Cup (2027) when the tournament will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.
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