Georgios Donis had a point to make even in victory. The Greek head coach of Saudi Arabia took aim at his players despite their win over Kuwait in the opening match of the Arabian Gulf Cup "Gulf 27".
Saudi Arabia edged their Kuwaiti counterparts 1-0 on Wednesday at Al-Inma Stadium in Jeddah, in the first round of the group stage of the 27th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup.
Speaking to Qatar's "Al-Kass" channels after the final whistle, Donis said: "I congratulate the players because they tried hard, and gave everything."
He continued: "But in matches like these, we must be calmer, make the right decisions, and do the right things."
The manager then explained: "It is not acceptable to have the ball close to the opponent's penalty area so many times without having real chances on goal, and without scoring goals."
He added: "We can make this type of match easier, and the next step for us is to make our players calmer and more confident in order to make the right decisions."
His frustration ran deeper still. "I am happy to get the three points, but we still suffer from the same problem since the World Cup. We have the ball, we control the match, and we get the ball close to the opponent's penalty area," he went on.
He concluded: "But the final pass, and the final decision, is not the best, so we have to make better decisions, and score goals."
Saudi Arabia's only goal owed everything to misfortune. Youssef Al-Haqqan turned the ball into his own net when a strike from Humam Al-Humami struck his foot, deceived the goalkeeper and crept in.