Stefano Pioli, the Italian head coach of Al-Nassr, expressed his disappointment after his team’s 3-2 defeat against Al-Ittihad in the 30th week of the Saudi Pro League.

With this loss, Al-Nassr dropped to fourth place with 60 points, while Al-Ittihad increased their points to 71 and extended their lead over second-placed Al-Hilal to 6 points.

Pioli said in the post-match press conference: “It’s difficult to talk about this match. We had an excellent first half, but in the second half the team collapsed after conceding two quick goals. The final result doesn’t reflect what we showed on the pitch.”

He added: “After being eliminated from the AFC Champions League (Elite version), we suffered from depression and low morale. Sometimes the team doesn’t have its day, like in the match against Kawasaki. Today we also played against a strong and leading team and it was a difficult match.”

The Al-Nassr coach continued: “I understand the fans’ disappointment, we are also disappointed. But in my opinion, we didn’t deserve to lose. We shouldn’t put the responsibility for this result on one particular player; all the players performed well.”

Pioli finally emphasized: “We have to move past this defeat very quickly. It’s true that after the Asian competitions, we went through a difficult period, but today we reacted well. I repeat once again: we didn’t deserve this defeat.”