Oman under-20 football team suffered a 3-0 defeat from Qatar in their friendly game in Doha on Thursday night. This was the second straight loss for the national junior team prior to AFC Asian U20 Championship in Tashkent city. The opening preparatory game between both teams ended for 2014 AFC Asian U20 champions with a 6-1 win on Monday.
Both massive defeats raised many concerns on the national team’s full technical readiness ahead of Asian event. The two successive losses opened different queries on the team’s defence structure. The coaching staff of the team headed by the Spanish coach David Gordo demanded on working to find solutions for a proper defence system.
Addressing the scoring concerns is another crucial task of the technical staff team as Oman players scored only one goal in the last two matches. Oman team will head to Uzbekistan on Sunday before two weeks of the Asian event’s start. It will be the last short aboard camp in Tashkent which will feature a high-quality international friendly match against the hosts of Asian Championship, Uzbekistan on Tuesday. It is expected that the coaching staff will work hard during these two weeks to assure team’s full readiness for the Asian assignment and overcome with the weakness areas.
With Qatar camp’s conclusion, the Spanish coach and his assistant staff would have finalised the starting line-up of the team for the Asian championship. The technical staff tested the majority of the announced squad during the past preparatory games.
Oman will compete in Group C at the AFC Asian U20 tournament alongside South Korea, Tajikistan and Jordan while Qatar are grouped in a challenging Group B besides Iran, Australia and Vietnam. The top four teams in the Asian tournament will secure their spots in the Fifa U20 World Cup 2023 which will be hosted in Indonesia from May 20 to June 11.
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