Bahrain national team coach Sergio Batista said his players are physically and tactically ready for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asia Cup qualifier against Philippines today. 

The game will be Bahrain’s fifth in their qualifying journey as they sit in fourth place (three points in four games) while their opponents are third (seven points in four games). The match kicks off at 6pm at the Bahrain National Stadium.

Batista, who was addressing a press conference at Bahrain National Stadium last night, said, “We have prepared the players physically and tactically very well for the game. The 4-0 defeat against Uzbekistan in our last game was a shock in every aspect so we had to also work on boosting the confidence of the players,” said the Argentinian coach. 

Batista also stressed that there will be no tactical change to the way he prefers to play even though he has had only one victory in four games. 

He also replied to criticism about his late substitutions. 

“I don’t think my substitutions are late. Abdelatif was brought into the last game nine minutes into the second half and the next substitution was 10 minutes later. I don’t think that was late,” replied the 52 year-old coach. 

He also defended his players after the horrendous result against Uzbekistan. 

“I don’t think any of the players wanted to lose the last game. Our opponents just had a better chance than us to winning the game. However I still have no reason as to why the players lost concentration after we conceded the first goal,” he said. 

Bahrain’s midfielder Abdulla Al Hazaa also took time to speak to the media. He apologised on behalf of all the players for the recent disappointment. 

“I know we have let the fans down after the last game but I can say no one intended to lose. I believe everyone makes mistake but we will learn from them,” he said. 

He said the team is determined to win today’s game. 

“We will try our best to win it for the fans. We have practised so hard the past two days and we did get a confidence boost. Hopefully everyone will be able to see that during the game,” the Bahraini midfielder said. 

The press conference was also attended by Philippines national team coach, Thomas Dooley and captain Phil Younghusband. 

Coach Dooley, who is hoping his team gets all three points from today’s game, said he will be up against an opponent keen to make amends.

“The match will not be an easy one but we always try to win the game. Bahrain are a higher ranked team than us and are strong in all their positions. But a win will mean we have a chance for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers,” coach Dooley said. 

He said the team are short of match parctice. They had been travelling for about 29 hours in last nine days. The team flew from Philippines to North Korea where they drew 0-0 with the group leaders and have then flew directly to Bahrain for today’s match. 

“As a team, we are very excited about the game, however we have only had three to four training sessions and they had to be light to ensure that the players did not get exhausted before the game,” said the 53 year-old coach. 

Captain Younghusband, who scored Philippines’ first goal against Bahrain in the match they won 2-1, also spoke about his team’s chances in the game. 

“It’s a game where we will want to give it our all. We are all very excited and hope to go back with three points,” he said.