Director Lee Jung-hyo, ahead of ACLE, said, "Of course, in our own style...Director Choi Kanghee won't know me
Director Lee Jung-hyo, ahead of ACLE, said, "Of course, in our own style...Director Choi Kanghee won't know me
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Gwangju FC head coach Lee Jung-hyo, who is set to play the first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Elite (ACLE) game this year, shouted, "Of course, we are aggressive in our own style."
Coach Lee Jung-hyo attended a press conference to prepare for Game 7 of the 2024-25 ACLE League Stage at the Olympic Sports Center in China on Sunday. Lee's team Gwangju will face Shandong Taishan at 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Ahead of its seventh match, Gwangju is ranking second in the ACLE League Stage with 13 points as of Tuesday. The team is on par with Yokohama F. Marinos and Vissel Kobe of Japan.
In this season's revamped ACLE, 24 East Asian and West Asian teams will be divided into regions and play eight league games instead of the group stage. In the match decided through a lottery, the top-ranked teams in each region will advance to the round of 16. Gwangju has greatly increased its chances of advancing to the round of 16.
For Gwangju, this will be the first official match in 2025. "We are going to play our first game of this season, and I think we have prepared well. We will have our first game before the opening of the K-League tomorrow, and I think it will be a good opportunity to see how well we have completed our team's performance," said Lee Jung-hyo. Kim Jin-ho, who was also present at the event, also promised that he had prepared well during the winter training and that he would do his best to show fans what he has prepared for tomorrow's game.
Gwangju has high expectations on Asani, who has scored seven goals in the ACLE alone, as the top scorer in the competition. Hayes, who once played in Gwangju in the past, is also set to return to the ACLE. "In addition to Asani, we have recruited Hayes as a new foreign player. Hayes moved to Jeju Island after playing for Gwangju in 2022. Hayes said he wanted to help Gwangju by taking advantage of his strengths, which led to his re-recruitment. We can check tomorrow if he will be able to play tomorrow," coach Lee Jung-hyo said.
Shandong Province has many foreign players from the K-League. Coach Choi Kang-hee, who is leading the team, is also the one who kickstarted the heyday of Jeonbuk Hyundai. However, Choi cannot sit on the bench until the round of 16 tournaments due to disciplinary action. Coach Lee Jung-hyo first said, "Players such as Baco and Zeka are well aware of their strengths and weaknesses because they have experience in the Korean stage. I think Player No. 9 is also a good player both technically and physically. I think the center back player is also very good physically, but I have talked a lot with the players to target him. As a Chinese player, I think the left fullback player is very good." 바카라사이트
"Coach Choi Kang-hee is a very famous coach in Korea and he has made many achievements. I think you probably don't know much about the new coach, Lee Jung-hyo," he added.
Gwangju has plenty of points to spare in the league stage, but coach Lee Jung-hyo still calls for offense. Lee said, "Of course, we will play aggressively in our own style in the match against Shandong. We will stage a game to steal the ball through forward pressure and score goals, and we want to score a lot of goals by pouring everything we have. We will defend the opposing team's offense with smart defense."