Lionel Scaloni: 'I became a coach so I could experience these emotions'

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni praised his team's character on Tuesday after their epic 3-2 victory over Egypt, having come back from two goals down, and celebrated the emotions his players make him experience.

"Football is tactics, strategy, but it is also heart, instinct, never giving up on a ball until the referee says it’s over," the coach told the post-match press conference.

"It happened, it could just as easily not have happened, but if we have to lose, I’d rather lose like this," he added.

Clearly emotional at the end of the match, the coach spoke about the emotions he had felt on the bench.

"I became a coach so that, when I stopped playing, I could experience these emotions. Not because I like being a coach," he said.

"The emotions that a football match gives you, that it gives us Argentines, I think are unmatched ... I’m a coach because of this," he insisted.

Asked about the course of the match, Scaloni said it "always belonged to Argentina," despite two or three brief spells of pressure from the Egyptians.

"The team believed it could win after the equaliser. I didn’t have to tell them, 'Let’s keep going,' because they did it on their own," he said.

– TIMES/AFP