Queiroz Azadi

Tasnim – Iran football coach Carlos Queiroz blamed the quality of Azadi’s pitch in the friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago.

Iran won the match cour­tesy of a lone strike from Karim Ansar­i­fard in the 50th minute at the Aza­di Sta­di­um.

“Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the pitch was not so good for both teams as it has been rain­ing a lot in Tehran but I think at the end of the day, there were lots of ben­e­fits for both sides. Since 2014 we have not met each oth­er,” Queiroz said.

“I was im­pressed with the abil­i­ty of the team to fight, to play and to counter-at­tack. I am sure also that un­der oth­er con­di­tions the team would be much bet­ter. It was un­for­tu­nate that with the state of the grass it was not pos­si­ble for the skillful play­ers of Iran and es­pe­cial­ly the skillful play­ers of Trinidad to ex­press them­selves,” the Portuguese coach added.  

Hav­ing played against the Trinidad four years ago, Queiroz said he has seen tremen­dous improve­ments, say­ing the team is much more com­pact, more ag­gres­sive and more organized with young fresh blood in it, Guardian.co.tt reported.

“I think you guys have a good fu­ture ahead of you,” said Queiroz. “I want to show my grat­i­tude for this op­por­tu­ni­ty to work to­geth­er. It is al­ways a fan­tas­tic op­por­tu­ni­ty for our players be­cause we play against play­ers with good tech­nique, speed, great at­ti­tude and phys­i­cal pow­er, and it’s al­ways an op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to learn and progress.”

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