Menendez points to lack of experience

AFC – BURIRAM, Coach Alejandro Menendez lamented a lack of experience as Buriram United’s fairy-tale AFC Champions League run came to an end in the quarter-finals on Wednesday after losing 2-1 to Iran champions Esteghlal.

Defender Osmar Barba had given Buriram hope of continuing to follow in the footsteps on 2003 AFC Champions League finalists BEC Tero Sasana after levelling the tie on aggregate with a 38thminute header at Buriram Stadium.

But after Hanif Omranzadeh equalised at the start of the second half, Andranik Teymourian sealed the win with a spectacular stoppage time strike to hand Esteghlal a 3-1 win on aggregate to endBuriram’s run having become the first Thai side since BEC Tero Sasana to reach the knockout stage.

“Esteghlal were more professional and more experienced in the second half and they knew how to slow the game. In football terms we were better, but they have more experience and knew how to manage the game better,” said former Racing Santander coach Menendez, who was only appointed just over a week ago.

“We were better during the game overall, but our lack of experience in this competition made us nervous and when we got to the Esteghlal box we were not precise.

“The second goal then came too late and we were already unorganised so they didn’t deserve this win or their passage to the semi-finals from what I have seen during this match. We had 14 chances against five chances from Esteghlal.”

Buriram, though, are on course to secure a third consecutive AFC Champions League appearance next season with Menendez’s new charges currently five points clear of defending champions Muangthong United at the top of the Thai Premier League table.

“We did brilliantly in the first half as we dominated everything defensively and offensively and we were able to score in the first half,” added Menendez.

“We were better than Esteghlal as they had no chances to score. But the goal came too early in the second half so we lost a little bit of concentration.

“In the second half we played too much with our heart and were too unorganised.

“We prepared for the game knowing we needed a lot of patience, but this killed us and we were unable to get to the Esteghlal box especially inside the last 10 minutes.”