\u201c[Cristiano] Ronaldo once said that if he didn’t experience stomach pain, it meant he had lost his passion for football,\u201d said Romarinho. \u201cIf you\u2019re tense at the start, it means you are taking on responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brazilian was nervous at the outset of the FIFA Club World Cup Saudi Arabia 2023\u2122. He\u2019d been out for over a month with a muscle injury. He was picked to start ahead of marquee signing Jota. Al Ittihad, playing in front of their worshipping yet demanding public, simply had to beat Auckland City in front of a record crown for an opening match in the competition.The Navy Blues began threatening to spoil the electric atmosphere, defending resolutely and looking sharp on the break. That was until Romarinho fizzed home the first just before the half-hour mark. Two goals followed before half-time, from N\u2019Golo Kante and Karim Benzema, and 3-0 is how it finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really happy because, coming back from injury, I knew I could only play 45 minutes,\u201d Romarinho, who played closer to an hour, told FIFA post-game. \u201cI tried to do my best but, coming back from injury, you know you have to hold back a bit. But thank God it went well and we got the victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it took us a while to get going,\u201d said Igor Coronado. \u201cBut we found the first goal, and that facilitated our style of play and took the pressure off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up for Ittihad is a mouth-watering, all-Arab showdown against Al Ahly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a good game,\u201d said Romarinho. \u201cWithout doubt it will be a tough game. But we believe in our side. We\u2019ll prepare well for the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey like to play football, they mark tightly. We will have to stay really concentrated, get all the little things right to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coronado believes the arrival of experienced, esteemed foreigners has enhanced Ittihad significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are easier now [with Benzema],\u201d he said. \u201cI hope we can help him on the pitch too. Not just Benzema but Fabinho, Kante \u2013 all these players who came from abroad,<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have that extra experience, so we have to take advantage of this moment. We know the Al Ahly team a little bit. They\u2019re very aggressive, they run a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coronado and Romarinho are fully focussed on Ahly, but as Brazilians, it\u2019s impossible not to drool over a semi-final against Fluminense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be really good,\u201d said Romarinho. \u201cThey\u2019re a really strong team, they were champions of the Libertadores, a really difficult competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe follow Brazilian football. Their team passes the ball really well, [Fernando] Diniz has quality players. First we\u2019re thinking about Ahly, but if we manage to get through it will be a really difficult game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201c[Cristiano] Ronaldo once said that if he didn’t experience stomach pain, it meant he had lost his passion for football,\u201d said Romarinho. \u201cIf you\u2019re tense at the start, it means you are taking on responsibility.\u201d The Brazilian was nervous at the outset of the FIFA Club World Cup Saudi Arabia 2023\u2122. He\u2019d been out for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":917084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-917083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=917083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/917084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=917083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=917083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=917083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}