Head coach Branko Ivankovic praised his Oman players for their gritty 2-1 win against Afghanistan in Group E of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 on Friday.
“I want to congratulate the players for this important win and the good thing is that we got the three points from this difficult match,” Ivankovic was quoted on the Asian Football Confederation website.
“The players were aware of the importance of winning the match and I kept reminding them during the match to focus."
“We dominated the match but expected some difficulty to score against Afghanistan because we knew that they would defend. The players deserve this win which has brought joy to all of us and the people back home.
“The pandemic affected us negatively as competitions have been cancelled and we tried our best to prepare the players and hopefully, things can get back to normal soon,” he concluded.
Oman, seeking to claim one of the five spots available to best runners-up in the final round of the Asian Qualifiers, play Bangladesh on Tuesday.
Afghanistan, meanwhile, will have to defeat India - who are one point ahead - to confirm third place for a spot in the final round of the Asian Qualifiers for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.
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