Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

Brazil coach Tite losing sleep ahead of Argentina Copa semi

Image
AFP Belo Horizonte
Last Updated : Jul 02 2019 | 9:55 AM IST

Brazil coach Tite admitted he's been having sleepless nights ahead of the Copa America semi-final against Argentina.

Tite took over from the sacked Dunga following Brazil's poor performance at the 2016 Centenario Copa America and said that he is just as nervous now as he was during his early matches in charge of the national team.

"I couldn't sleep properly, I'm not Superman, I'm the way I am and I can deal with that," he said ahead of Tuesday's match in Belo Horizonte's Mineirao stadium, the scene of Brazil's 7-1 semi-final humiliation against Germany at the 2014 World Cup.

"Yesterday I woke up at 3.15 am, I was thinking about what I'm going to do.

"As a coach I always have a notepad next to me to write something down. That's the reality of being a coach, not just me, (Argentina coach Lionel) Scaloni too, all of us."
"You can't eliminate Messi, you might be able to reduce what he can do but you can't neutralize a player of that level, just as you can't neutralize (Philippe) Coutinho, (Roberto) Firmino, Willian, David (Neres) -- at some point, they will produce something."
"But in the second match our team prevailed and we qualified."
He added: "Every match has its story; the match with Roma had its story, the match with Liverpool had another story. Fortunately they were two stories that went my way."
- Aguero confirmed, but not Messi -
===================================
Although he said they were at an advantage as "they've been together a long time with the same coach and players who've played together for a long time."

Also Read

First Published: Jul 02 2019 | 9:55 AM IST

Next Story