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FIFA: Braga: The time of my life

/noticias.info/ Internacional coach Abel Braga described winning the FIFA Club World Cup as 'the pinnacle of his career.' Read the rest of his responses and find out what Frank Rijkaard had to say after the Final of this year's event.

Abel Braga (Internacional coach)
This is a great achievement. We outlined an objective and we ran after it. Now we are the champions of the world, at the very top. Barcelona have an excellent team but we played with courage. The players are heroes.

Our team was tactically perfect. We played with three forwards, but were always thinking about marking. We knew that Barcelona have such talented players and expected a difficult game, but we were always confident. The players believed that we could beat them. If they hadn't it would have been complicated. I told them to pay attention to two things: marking and strategy. They did everything that I asked of them. Tactically we played a very good game and our marking was strong - this was the only way to defeat Barcelona. It was like this that Chelsea and Real Madrid defeated them.

For me, I have reached the pinnacle of my career. I don't think anything can top this - not in club football anyway.

Spain's FC Barcelona head coach Frank Rijkaard.


Frank Rijkaard (FC Barcelona coach)
For me personally, I consider this to be a failure, because I was unable to help my side. Times like these are difficult for any sportsperson, but you just have to deal with them and move on. It is a huge disappointment, but that's sport for you - only one team can win. We need to take this defeat on board and then move on.

It's not easy, but I have to congratulate Inter, who played as a team and put in a great performance. I feel that they were the better side. At no time were we in control of that game. Their players showed a lot of character out there and were deserved winners. We're bitterly disappointed.

We waited patiently for opportunities to come our way, but every time we got close to their area we ran up against a wall of players. They put in a quality performance, and we were unable to find a way to respond. As I said before, South American sides have traditionally done well in this competition. notas_de_prensa_archivo