Ceni rues Bahia’s Copa do Brasil exit, calls it a “huge setback” | OneFootball

After Bahia's elimination in the preliminary phase of the Libertadores, coach Rogério Ceni commented on the loss caused by the defeat to O’Higgins. With this negative result, the Tricolor de Aço no longer has a chance to compete in international tournaments for the rest of the season.

“It’s a huge loss not to have an international calendar, regardless of whether it’s the Copa Libertadores, which was our goal, or even the Copa Sudamericana. This is a loss that will take a long time to reverse,” said Rogério Ceni.

“You spend an entire year building an opportunity like this and in 90 minutes, and often in a silly play, you end up throwing it all away. It’s something that is psychologically very difficult to reverse immediately,” he stated.

Offensive Difficulties

Despite creating a lot in the first half, but with difficulty finding the back of the net, Ceni also highlighted the team’s deficiencies in finishing plays. A poor ball exit by Ademir resulted in the opponent’s goal, which took the match to penalties.

“We had the volume to try to decide it in the first half, it’s a difficulty we have, we create a lot and miss a lot of chances, we score few goals compared to the number of plays we create. Today, once again, it happened and we paid dearly for that mistake,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we lost a ball that allowed the opponent’s goal at the end of the play and we had many other options to just push the ball in,” Ceni pointed out.

  See this photo on Instagram   A post shared by CONMEBOL Libertadores (@libertadoresbr)

Del’s Responsibility and Changes in the Season

When asked about responsibility, Ceni explained why he chose Del, who is 17 years old, instead of a more experienced player to take a penalty in the shootout. The coach also commented on the changes in the team compared to last season, when they reached the Libertadores group stage.

“His performance was better in training and that’s why we chose him to take it. He said he wanted to take it. The opportunity is given, he’s a kid, but he’s already taken penalties in other important situations, even with the Brazilian national team, just as Everton also missed a penalty. Only those who are there taking on that responsibility miss!” he explained.

“It’s a change in the team’s characteristics for this year. Last year, it was a very technical team that built up a lot, kept possession, and had little aggressiveness. The team is more or less similar to last year, we had some players leave and others arrive,” Ceni concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.