Egypt can hurt Russia: Mourinho

CAIRO – 18 June 2018: The Portuguese coach, Jose Mourinho, has praised Mohamed Salah on Russia Today TV Channel; he expects the game between Egypt and Russia to be the most important game for group A as it will determine the team that will qualify to the next stage of the World Cup.

Mourinho, or the Special One as the British media name him, expected that the game between the Pharaohs and the Russian team will be very competitive and won’t be easy to any side, calling it the “crucial match” of the group.

Although Mourinho forecasted Uruguay and Russia to qualify to the next round of the World Cup, expecting that the crucial game will end by a draw, but he admitted that Salah poses danger on the Russian defenses, saying “Egypt has one of the fastest players of the world with ball, without ball, he can dribble, he can attack spaces behind defenders; I think Russia has to drop the block back.”

Manchester United coach, Mourinho, mentioned also the differences between facing Egypt and Saudi Arabia “Russia can sit a little bit against a very naïve team, against the team without any physical power, but Egypt can hurt them.” And he added “I have to say this, I don’t think Russia can score many goals, and I’m saying this after five null, but I don’t think they can score many goals against good teams.”

On the same context the Special One revealed that the weak point of the Russian team is the cross balls from set pieces, as he sees that the Saudi players were very small compared to the Russians, and although they won a lot of air balls. This may be a good point in the Egyptians favor, as most goals conceded by the Pharaohs were from cross balls; our defense always fails to clear them from the danger area.