Abu Dhabi: With the South American giants Gremio waiting in the first semi-finals of Fifa World Club Cup, Pachuca manager Diego Alonso has his task cut out.
Their contest against a 10-man Wydad Casablanca was clearly a lacklustre affair and they only scraped through with a hard-fought second half extra-time goal by Victor Guzman.
“Our first half was bad and we got nervous. We improved a lot in the second half. We were able to control it in a better way. We had another attitude, better tactics after that and played better. In the end, most importantly, we got the result,” said Alonso, acknowledging that his side will have to pull up their socks if they have to come anywhere close to taming Gremio.
“We very well know what Gremio means to Brazil. They are the giants of South America. They have developed high potential to reach the standards and to win against top clubs.
“They have players with a lot of talent. I hope we can exploit some of their weaknesses to get the desired result,” felt Alonso.
Johnathan Martinez, who walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award, also agreed it was a struggle for his team but vowed to come out strongly in the next outing.
“It was a difficult match but we were superior to them. We have passed the first hurdle but we have to think of the next stage. We didn’t perform as expected but it was important to win, which we did. We will be better organised against Gremio,” said Martinez.
Wydad coach Hussain Amotta was of the view that his side was left with very little option once they saw their skipper Brahim Nakach sent off 21 minutes from time.
“The turning point was losing Nakach. Still the players created opportunities after that but we didn’t deal well with those chances. Our team was the last one to come down here. This is football and maybe the pressure was too much on the players after the firing of Nakach.”
