Doha: The Oman national football team faces a big task in their final group match after securing a goalless draw against Thailand team in the second round match of Group F at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Al Duhail Club on Sunday.
The Asian Cup Qatar 2023 match had an attendance of 6,500 spectators.
Despite the relative improvement in Oman team's performance during the second half, they lacked a clear tactical identity in attack line.
The forward line-up consisting Mohsen al Ghassani and Esam al Subhi seemed unable to create offensive scoring opportunities despite 70 per cent of field control.
The Red Warriors failed to decode the Thai defensive bloc, which tightly closed the spaces for Omani players.
Oman playmaker Salah al Yahyai was unable to perform his usual role in creating opportunities and supplying the attack line.
Branko Ivankovic, Oman head coach, did not succeed in implementing his plans during the match. The substitutions made by the coach did not contribute to penetrating Thailand penalty box.
The Oman coach said: "We played a strong and difficult match, our goal was to make Omani fans happy, the players gave their all, and I am proud of that."
"We knew the difficulty of the confrontation and the need to exert great effort, that pushed us diligently to create many opportunities, but we were not lucky in reaching Thai net", he added.
"Our third match against the Kyrgyz Republic will be very difficult, but we look forward to giving everything we have to achieve victory," the Croatian coach added.
In the second match of Group F, Saudi Arabia defeated Kyrgyzstan 2-0 to enter the last 16 round. Saudi had beaten Oman 2-1 in their first match and are topping the group with six points.
Thailand are second after drawing with Oman in second round. With a win against Kyrgyzstan in the first round 2-0, they have 4 points.
Oman remained third with a single point.
The Red Warriors will take on Kyrgyzstan on Thursday at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, which can accommodate 10,000 spectators.
Oman hopes are still alive as they need to beat Kyrgyzstan with a goal difference more than Thailand and expect the Saudis to beat the Thais. Both matches will held on January 25 at 6 pm Oman time.
If Oman finish third in the group, they will have to wait to qualify among best four teams that ranked third from six groups.
In the tournament, 24 teams participated in the group stage, divided into 6 groups, 16 teams will qualify for the last 16. Twelve teams (first and second place from each group) will qualify directly, the rest four teams will take from the best four teams that occupy third place within the six groups.
The qualifiers for the last 16 will be decided, first by the direct points between group teams, then by goal difference, then by number of yellow and red cards and by the clean play.
This system will keep the strong competitions continuing in the remaining rounds of the group stage.
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