Zaccheroni pleased with UAE's midfield brilliance against Bolivia

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Zaccheroni pleased with UAEs midfield brilliance against Bolivia
The UAE and Bolivia players tussle for the ball during their international friendly match in Dubai.

Dubai - Even Bolivia coach Cesar Farias praised the home team

By Rituraj Borkakoty

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Published: Sat 17 Nov 2018, 9:00 PM

Last updated: Sat 17 Nov 2018, 11:14 PM

Bolivia often find themselves chasing shadows in their grueling South American away matches against Brazil and Argentina.
But on a beautiful Friday evening, it was not the Samba Boys whose passing troubled them.
Rather, it was Alberto Zaccheroni's UAE team that left the Bolivians, who thrive in their high altitude venue in La Paz, gasping for breath at Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai.
The game may have ended in a goalless draw, but it gave Zaccheroni plenty of reasons to be hopeful about the home team for the AFC Asian Cup that will begin on January 5.
"Very impressed with our midfielders. That's what I always want to see from them. They dominated the midfield and played some good football," the former AC Milan coach told after the goalless draw.
"What impressed me most is that we didn't play long balls. It was all short passes."
Such was the dominance of the home team that Bolivia, the 59th ranked team in the world, were happy to sit back.
"I am not satisfied with the result. Yes the team played very well, but considering the chances we had, we should have won the match," the former Japan coach said. "We had five clear chances. We didn't score, but that's football. I don't have a problem with that. What mattered is that the team has improved.
"See Bolivia is better than us in the Fifa rankings. They are ranked 59, while we are 81. But we have played very good game. We controlled the midfield. We had too many chances to score, but we failed to grab our chances.
"Yes, I am not satisfied with the result, but I am satisfied with the performance today (Friday)."
It was a highly impressive performance from a team that had lost two of their previous three friendly international matches.
"We played last month against Honduras and Venezuela in Barcelona. There was definitely an improvement today. The players played very well today," Zaccheroni said. "Probably the players are getting more matches in the league for their clubs now. Couple of months back when we played against Trinidad, our players had hardly played one or two games for their clubs. But now my players have got more club matches under their belt and that has helped the national team.
"We saw that in the performance today. The team was very compact. We played possession football against a strong Bolivian team. They play very aggressive. They always try to send those balls to their strikers. But our team was very organised," said Zaccheroni who led Japan to glory in the 2011 Asian Cup.
Even Bolivia coach Cesar Farias praised the home team after the final whistle. "We came up against a team managed by an experienced Italian coach. They are a very tactical team. They played good possession football, but they also defended well," the Venezuelan said.
"It was a good learning experience for my players in different conditions. We hit the post in the final minute, so we could have even won the match!"
rituraj@khaleejtimes.com
 


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