Victory coach talks about replacing Ronaldo: The opponent finally lined up 5 defenders, we need a forward

In the 1/8 finals of the Saudi Crown, Riyadh Victory lost 1-2 to Jeddah United and missed the top 8. After the game, Riyadh Victory coach Jorge Jesus accepted an interview with the media.

The situation of the game

This is the third time we have played against Jeddah United this season, with two wins and one loss. In the first half, the two teams played evenly, but the opponent scored 2 goals. We tried our best to equalize the score, but failed to score another goal.

Team Status

The whole team looked exhausted today. Felix had been feeling unwell due to a cold, so he was not able to show his best physical condition in this game. This is our first defeat of the season. We did not want to swallow the bitter pill of defeat at home and would like to apologize to the fans.

About not replacing Ronaldo

At the end of the game, the opponent deployed a five-back formation. It was unreasonable to replace Ronaldo at this time. We need to use forwards to deal with this situation.

Objective factors

The team entered this game with great fatigue after returning from India. Many players were in poor physical condition, which directly led to lack of physical preparation. The opponent was the defending league and cup champions. They showed competitiveness in this game, just like when we defeated them in an away game.

Brozovic did not start

Brozovic only completed his first training after injury yesterday and does not yet have the physical condition to play the entire game.

Goals for this season

Now that we have lost an important championship and have been eliminated from one of the three competitions, I have always emphasized that the league is the primary goal since coaching. Today we failed to advance. We will refocus on our main goal-the league championship.