Coach Helio Sousa basks in Bahrain’s glory

Doha, Qatar: As Bahrain won a dream Gulf Cup title after starting the tournament as underdogs, their coach Helio Sousa, the main brain behind their success, is sure to attain heroic status.

Sousa's team started with a draw against Oman and were on the verge of an early exit after losing to Saudi Arabia but they came back brilliantly against Kuwait to win 4-2 and after that, there was no stopping them.

“It is a great day in the history of Bahrain football and it deserves to be celebrated. It is the result of our tremendous work to create a team that can compete for titles, a work we started about five months ago. We have fighters in every match. We fought till the end and we are proud. Now we will focus our attention to the Asian qualifiers,” said Sousa after the win.

The Portuguese coach fielded an entirely different 11 to that started against Iraq in the semis, but he said it was not a gamble.

"It is not a gamble. I believe in all the players, 23 players, each one of them are able to perform as they should and this is what we have proved. We spent a lot of time building this team," said Sousa.

He concluded: “I congratulate the Bahraini people on this achievement, congratulate our players on this heroic performance, and our goal is to continue to achieve good results, and to make our way in the double qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, and 2023 Asian Cup.