Last Wednesday (13), Chiangrai United, led by Brazilian coach Gabriel Magalhães, secured a spot in the quarterfinals of the Thai Cup by defeating Songkhla 4-0 away from home. The team from the northern part of the country now awaits the draw for the next phase, which will reveal their opponent in the quarterfinals of the competition, where the coach’s goal is to reach the final.
With the qualification secured, the club aims to continue advancing to secure a spot in the AFC Champions League, which holds great importance on the continent. Having already lifted the trophy for the first time in 2018, they aim to become champions again this season. Therefore, the coach discusses how the team’s planning should be for the upcoming stages.
READ MORE
++ Andreas Pereira: “I’m very proud to be Brazilian”
++ Who is the Brazilian National Team psychologist?
++ Dorival Júnior is making tests for Brazil’s game against England in Wembley
“We achieved an important victory against a team that stands out in the lower divisions. The rules here are quite different, as we can only have three foreigners and cannot use any other Asian players in the Cup besides Thais, so we had to change our lineup. It was a tough game, but we managed to secure an important victory and now we have qualified for the quarterfinals. Now we will face first division teams in single matches. The idea in the competition is to stay focused, maintain our goal, pursue this dream of the Cup, which won’t be easy, but at the same time earn points in the League to avoid relegation,” he said.
Gabriel is one of the few Brazilian coaches outside Brazil, and also one of the youngest at 40 years old. With his CBF Academy PRO License, the coach has had stints at Corinthians, Fortaleza, Sampaio Corrêa, and other clubs in Brazil before moving to Asian football.
He arrived at Chiangrai as an assistant but soon became the coach of the B team and was eventually appointed as the head coach of the main team at the end of 2022. With 50 games completed for the franchise recently, Gabriel Magalhães believes that the football break in the country will be extremely important to prepare his younger players and come up with new strategies.
“We made a change to play with a back four, faced some difficulties in certain aspects, so it’s time to try out some younger players as well. This training time will be crucial for us to better develop our athletes. Football involves various training aspects that we need to improve on to perform well in the League and also pursue this dream of another Cup for Chiangrai,” he concluded.
The team will return to action only on March 31 against Buriram away from home at 7:30 AM in the Thai League 1. Currently, they are in eighth place with 26 points.
