The Spanish head coach of Al Ain, Quique Flores, has praised the excellent penalty shooting skills of Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan.
Contrary to Ghanaian perception that Gyan is a bad penalty taker, coach Quique believes Gyan has an excellent penalty taking skills and his third penalty kick for Al Ain revived the team's hope in their 11-10 penalty shoot-out victory over Al Wasl in the President Cup.
�The third excellent kick by Gyan was the turning point in shootouts as it revived Al Ain chance to be back to competition as they succeeded to qualify to the semifinal.�
Asked about if he trained the players on shootouts in the training sessions before the match as the first two shootouts were missed and he replied: �first I would like the players all who kicked the shootouts especially the first two ones as responsibility on them is bigger.
We chose the players for the shootouts during the training sessions but in matches the situation is different from training sessions. However all showed huge efforts during the 120 minutes of the match. It is hard to explain to the media and the fans how to break in a team played 120 minutes by closing all gaps and retreating back to defense.�
�comparing to the performance shown today in the match I don�t think we deserve to received two goals in our net during the match but I�m happy by the players spirit and determination to start over the match to reach the semifinal of the president cup.�
�We were so close to scoring many times after we controlled the match and we threatened Al Wasl goal many times as well. I would like to congratulate Al Ain players for the huge efforts they showed today which led them to victory and qualifying to the semifinal.�
Quique concluded: �I congratulate Al Ain fans for qualifying and I thank them for the huge efforts and the role they played by supporting the team for the whole 120 minutes of the match especially when the team was late and during the shootouts. The fans role was a huge morale for all players and we will be as one team starting from the administration, coaches, players and fans to hit out targets by winning all coming matches.�
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