After Bahia defeat, Abel Ferreira slams his team: Inadmissible | OneFootball

Abel Ferreira's Palmeiras lost 1-0 at Bahia's home in a match valid for the 25th round of the Brasileirão. After failing to seize the championship lead, the former player and coach of Sporting criticized the state of the opponent's pitch, which he considered "unacceptable".

"It's difficult. You're not prepared for this kind of situation. We're talking about high-level, professional football, this pitch should be unacceptable. Injuries arise due to the pitch conditions. If you go abroad, you can see that the pitch is painted. I can't understand it. Congratulations to Bahia. They scored a goal in an individual play, in a very balanced but very difficult game to play. The ball was constantly bouncing, it's hard to play like this. But congratulations to our opponent. It's our second away defeat. It's a difficult, long path, but it's very hard to play on such a pitch. But we accept it and move on," the Portuguese coach began by saying.

However, the criticism didn't stop there. Next, Abel Ferreira also highlighted the forced substitutions of Piqueréz and Evangelista: "We can come up with all the excuses, we can say it's due to fatigue, that it was the player, that the coach made a bad substitution... I regret the injuries, I regret the way we wanted to play football on such a pitch. It's impossible to create. We had the same opportunities. I think it's sad. Bahia has very good players, Palmeiras does too, it's hard to play like this. The team that was luckier ended up winning. At the moment we conceded the goal, we were on top of the game. But you can see that the quality of actions is poor because the ball is always bouncing. After the goal, the game was over. Congratulations to our opponent. In 3 or 4 days, we're playing again."

When questioned about the schedule at this stage of the season, Abel Ferreira - who recently qualified for the Libertadores semi-final - said that he ends up looking bad: "It's very tough for a coach to talk about something that isn't new. It's like hitting a knife's edge and then I'm the one who bleeds. I know what I've faced over the years for wanting to improve and people understanding my criticism as not liking where I am. It's not that, I say it because I think there's room for improvement. But if people don't want to... I know where I am, these are the rules. We will continue to play every three days, every two days, whatever it is."

"Sometimes you also have to rely a little on luck, with injuries, with recovery, because you need that bit of luck. To avoid pitches like this, to avoid, like our opponent, any injuries, we had two," he said, concluding: "It's no use talking more about the schedule, about the pitch. It won't depend on me. Many people warned: 'Don't do this, your image will worsen.' But I won't stop being myself. The question is pertinent, but I've been asked it 534 times. There's a lot of room for improvement, but those decisions aren't up to me."

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