Jeonbuk Hyundai head coach Dan Petrescu is pleased with his team’s performance.
Jeonbuk Hyundai won their third Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League (ACL) Group F qualifying match of the 2023/24 season 3-0 against Ryan City at Jeonju World Cup Stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday.
Coach Petrescu told the post-match press conference, “It was very important. Even more so because we lost the second leg. I’m happy with the players’ performance. We scored a lot of goals. I think it was the best performance since my wife died.”
“They have a lot of national team players. However, we were better,” he added.
If Jeonbuk hadn’t won the game against Ryan City, they would have been in a tough spot to guarantee a first-place finish that would have given them a direct ticket to the knockout rounds.
Jeonbuk will host the Pohang Steelers on March 28 in the 35th round of the K League 1. They need a win to finish in the top half of the standings, where they have a better chance of qualifying for the ACL next season.
On top of that, they host Incheon United in the 2023 Hana OneQ FA Cup semifinals at Anbang on the first of next month. It’s a mountain to climb for a win that would give them an automatic berth in the ACL.
Jeonbuk got their fateful three-game series off to a good start against Ryan City. They can now prepare for the remaining two games at home with confidence.토스카지노
“There were only positives,” said Petrescu. The players who started played well. I felt the team spirit was alive,” he said.
On the exclusion of Jeonbuk defender Petrasek from the roster, he said, “It’s an injury. He injured his eye.”
Jeonbuk lost the second leg against Bangkok United after a sloppy performance. A lesson learned? Against Ryan City, they were dominant.
Petrescu said, “We learned from the second leg what the players wanted. They want to press and create chances. In the ACL, and even in the K League, you don’t go down after scoring the first goal. We realized the importance of continuing to try to attack.”
It’s been a long time since Jeonbuk has played attacking soccer. Can they keep it up? Coach Petrescu said, “We have games three days apart. It’s hard to make big changes. We have players back from the Asian Games. If we are physically complete, I think we can maintain the performance we showed today.”
Amano, meanwhile, opened the scoring with a sensational left-footed strike that set the stage for Ryan City’s own goal. For his impressive performance, he was named Man of the Match.
“Ryan City was a good team,” said Amano. Every ACL is a big match. There were some difficult moments, but the players played well, so the result was good,” said Amano.
“I thought we needed to prove our competitiveness with a goal. We needed more goals and I think it will affect our performance and confidence going forward.”
