"Gimenez, Godin and Caceres did a very, very good job"

Uruguay coach Diego Alonso said on Thursday after the goalless draw against South Korea in their Qatar 2022 opener that his team "sought, tried and insisted" on victory but lacked "fluency", and noted the improvement in the second half, after the half-time talk, when his side dominated the game more.

"The team tried, sought and insisted. We lacked the fluency that we always have when it comes to generating 1v1 situations on the flank. In general terms, I'm happy with what the players did. Surely, qualification will be decided on the last matchday, especially with the result we did, but it doesn't condition us. Qualification will depend on what we can do," he told a press conference at Doha's Education City stadium.

"It was a match in which both teams competed and played well. I think that in the first half, especially in the first 20 minutes, Korea made it difficult for us, especially when it came to recovering the ball. Then in the second half we dominated more, but we lacked a little more freedom in our playmaking, but overall I think the team competed well. I liked a number of things the players did today," explained the coach.

"If you look at the starting eleven we had the characteristics of attacking players, with practically three strikers, three attacking midfielders and one of the full-backs who played on the left with a lot of attacking influence. In the first half we weren't able, especially in the first 20 minutes, to work out where to press, in which spaces, and this led to a lack of precision. With the half-time adjustments, the second half changed. The team was more aggressive in defending and attacking. In the second half we were able to do that," he insisted.

For Diego Alonso, the changes "were not late". "We made them at the moments we needed to, where we saw we could have an influence," explained the coach, who was satisfied with the defensive work: "I think that, in general terms, what Gimenez, Godin and Caceres did was very, very good. We saw the level they had on a day-to-day basis and what we needed and intended to do in the match. They did it in the best way," he said.