Botafogo coach predicts 'perfect night' against PSG after World Cup debut win

Despite the victory in the Club World Cup debut, coach Renato Paiva pointed out flaws that Botafogo needs to resolve for the important and difficult game against Paris Saint-Germain, on Thursday, in the next round of Group B. The coach predicts a “perfect night” for the Rio de Janeiro team to be able to face the current Champions League champions.

For Paiva, Botafogo “failed” in defense, had less possession of the ball than they should have and showed physical fatigue above expectations in the second half. These were the points that, in the coach’s opinion, allowed Seattle Sounders to reduce the Brazilian team’s advantage on the scoreboard, 29 minutes into the second half. Botafogo won 2-1.

“We will work on that, waiting for a very difficult opponent, where we will have to be much better, much more competent and have practically a perfect night to face Paris Saint-Germain”, declared the Portuguese coach.

Paiva, however, admitted that he will not have enough time to make all these adjustments in training. “The corrections will have to be made based on video, because it is three days and we have to make these corrections within the recovery period of most of the players. We need to really look at these sins of this performance, which cannot happen against an opponent like PSG, obviously.”

The Botafogo coach said he watched PSG's match live, already thinking about the second round. “We paid a lot of attention when we watched PSG's game today. They are a great team, a very strong collective, they have a great way of playing and attacking. They are an aggressive team defensively, but they also have their moments and they also leave some moments for the opponent to attack and have the ball.”

Regarding the team's overall performance in the debut, Paiva gave a positive assessment. “We started the game very well. We had opportunities to score more goals but we didn't. The first half was 'ok', but in the second half we didn't have the same intensity as our opponent, who were looking for the goal. I felt the team was a little tired and had difficulty maintaining intensity and aggressiveness. It wasn't a great game, but that's how it is in the first games in competitions like this. So, it's good that we came away with the three points. We didn't have the ball today and our DNA is to have the ball. The opponent with the ball knew what to do. We suffered because of that.”