Christophe Galtier would undoubtedly have dreamed better for his return to a bench. After a turbulent season that many considered disappointing, the 57-year-old French technician decided to move away from France for a bit to gain some perspective. Still mired in a matter of racism, he explained that he needed a little rest. “Some clubs contacted me, that reassures me, because my place is on the sidelines, I could have resumed quickly, but I needed to settle down. I want to go back, I’m young, I want to continue to enjoy being a coach.”he explained in an interview with Canal+.
Since then, his name had been persistently associated with OM to succeed Marcelino who had resigned. Naples was also studying the possibility of calling on the Frenchman in the event of failure with Rudi Garcia. But ultimately, Christophe Galtier chose a more exotic destination. A few days ago, he finally decided to join Al-Duhail in Qatar. The Doha club is owned by Nasser bin Abdallah Al-Ahmed Al Thani, from the same family that owns PSG. And for his first with his new club, Christophe Galtier started with a shock in the Asian Champions League against Al-Nassr and his stars.
Christophe Galtier already criticized!
Back on the bench, the former OGC Nice coach hoped to start with a prestigious victory, but that was without counting on a fiery Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese scored a sumptuous double while Sadio Mané also found the fault. The start of a nightmarish evening for Galtier since his team was trailing 3-0 at the hour mark. Finally, Al-Duhail thought he could overturn the match by scoring two goals but that was not enough as Al-Nassr finished by securing the victory (4-3 final score) thanks to CR7. “Before I took over as coach of the team, I looked at the statistics and they were not good. Today we had 6 chances to score and we managed to score three goals”confided Galtier after the meeting.
But Qatari journalists have already started to criticize the French coach, accusing him of his lack of decision-making when his team was going badly. And at a press conference, Galtier explained himself. “Changes happen depending on the flow of the match, and today I was looking for consistency in the performance, that’s what pushed us to make changes in the last minutes to create a reaction on the pitch”he confided before emphasizing the level of his evening opponent. “We faced a great team with great potential and their players had the right solutions, and the goals scored by Ronaldo, Mané and Talisca were magnificent. In this match, individual abilities made the team, and despite this, my team managed to present a very good match. For his first, Christophe Galtier found positives despite the defeat. But rest assured, he won’t run into Cristiano Ronaldo every weekend.
