Pride at stake for beaten pair
Saturday, April 24, 2010
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Although disappointed to have missed out on a UEFA Futsal Cup final place, the Araz Naxçivan and Luparense C/5 coaches said their sides will do everything to win Sunday's bronze medal match.
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Although disappointed to have missed out on a place in the UEFA Futsal Cup final, the coaches of Araz Naxçivan and Luparense C/5 said both sets of players are ready to give their all in order to triumph in Sunday's third-place play-off.
Angry after witnessing his side "making too many mistakes" in their 8-4 semi-final defeat to hosts SL Benfica, Sito Rivera said his team now needed to respond so that the Italian side could leave the Portuguese capital with their heads held high.
"We are certainly going to have to be a lot more clever than we were against Benfica on Friday," the Luparense coach said. "We have to play for our pride and to show we are a better team than we were against Benfica. We know Araz have good players like Thiago and Serjão so it won't be an easy or straightforward game."
Araz coach Alesio said he was preparing to spend long periods in the screening room to learn all he can about Sunday's opponents. "We will study Luparense's recent games to see what we can do but after our [5-2] loss to Interviú Madrid the most important thing will be to work on the psychological side of things as that result hurt us."
