{"id":12054,"date":"2011-04-04T17:09:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/04\/04\/we-are-here-to-win-insists-metsu\/"},"modified":"2011-04-04T17:09:29","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T00:09:29","slug":"we-are-here-to-win-insists-metsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/04\/04\/we-are-here-to-win-insists-metsu\/","title":{"rendered":"We are here to win insists Metsu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ghalenoei-ac2007-1\"AFC – ESFAHAN, Boss Bruno Metsu insisted Al Gharafa will not be intimidated by Group A leaders Sepahan when they look to get their 2011 AFC Champions League challenge back on track in Esfahan on Tuesday. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Qataris have just one point from their opening two games after a 1-0 home defeat to Al Hilal last time out and take on a Sepahan side at the Foolad Shahr who opened up with consecutive victories.<\/p>\n

Keeper Qasem Burhan could be an injury doubt but Metsu believes his men are well-equipped to overcome the Iranians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no problems at the moment. Weather conditions are just fine and we have quickly acclimatised to the situation. We know our opponents very well,\u201d said the Frenchman, who led Al Ain to glory in the inaugural AFC Champions League.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true that they are very strong but if there was no chance of winning the game against Sepahan, we wouldn\u2019t be here now. They have won two games so far but we don\u2019t deem that we are losers before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI confess that Sepahan are a strong side, but we don\u2019t care about numbers and statistics. The result of tomorrow\u2019s game will be absolutely regardless of previous matches\u2019 results. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say now whether we will be playing defensively or more attacking in the game tomorrow. You will see everything in the game. I just want to utter a brief sentence and that is we are here to win. I will answer your entire question on the field of the play tomorrow afternoon.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sepahan go into the encounter brimming with confidence. As well as leading the way in Group A with two wins from two, a 3-2 victory over Peykan saw them move five points clear of fellow 2011 AFC Champions League participants Zob Ahan at the top of the Iran Pro League with six games to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our third game in the Champions League this year. I\u2019m happy we have collected all six points so far, so we are in pretty good shape for tomorrow\u2019s match,\u201d said Sepahan boss Amir Ghalenoei, whose side demolished Al Jazira 5-1 two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have completely analysed their previous two games and I know some changes have been implemented since the new coach has been in place. <\/p>\n

\u201cAl Gharafa have made a huge investment. However, with the good organisation and planning we have, we are determined to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghalenoei does not expect Metsu’s team to sit back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was manager of the national team and Metsu was in charge of UAE, we came up against each other. I know he likes to play offensively but I believe they were unlucky against Al Hilal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s correct that they are a good team but we are a team that is currently in pretty good form. We would like to ease our way through by registering another victory, so we can focus on topping the standings for the rest of the games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – ESFAHAN, Boss Bruno Metsu insisted Al Gharafa will not be intimidated by Group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2804,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}