In their home debut of the season, the Dalian People soccer team earned three valuable points with a 2-0 victory over the Cangzhou Lions. After the match, the coaches of the two teams, Xie Hui and Sablić, attended a press briefing together.
Facing the media, Dalian People's skipper Xie Hui said passionately, "The players were motivated to play their first home game, but also felt a lot of pressure. At the beginning of the game, we quickly executed our tactics and pressed the opponents from a high position, which made the situation very favorable. In the second half, the team continued to keep active running and managed to keep the victory. I would like to thank the players for their hard work and the fans on the field for their great support, they are the 12th man of our team. This is our first win at home and we hope to gain more three points in the future and share the joy of victory with our fans.
Talking about the lifting of the team's transfer ban and whether he would consider giving the newly joined players a chance to play, Xie Hui responded, "The answer is simple and clear, whoever performs well in training will have a chance to play. I don't differentiate between players who are newcomers or veterans, as long as they are in good form, they will be able to play in the game. Although we seek a better direction, we have to take into account the time factor and not rush things. I understand the ability of the newly joined players, but they need time to adapt to the team, gel and so on."
Cangzhou Lions manager Sabrić also expressed his opinion: "First of all, I would like to congratulate Dalian people for the victory. Three or four days before the match, we made careful preparations. We know Dalian is a team that likes to attack, so we prepared accordingly. However, the other team scored in the opening half, and that's how soccer is sometimes. It's their specialty that they like to put pressure up front. We also had chances to equalize, but unfortunately didn't take advantage of them. During the half-time break, I inspired the players and asked them to be more aggressive in attacking for a 50-50 situation and to have as much possession as possible. In the second half, we also tried to change the pace of the game, but unfortunately did not score. Still, congratulations to the Dalian people and I hope they will achieve better results in the coming matches."
