MUSCAT: Oman’s head coach, Rasheed Jaber, praised top spirit of the team after securing a crucial point from South Korea on Thursday in an away match in the seventh round of AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to 26 as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
“It is a positive result especially the players were fasting and arrived to South Korea after long trip. We have to build up on this essential draw for our remaining ties in the qualifiers,” Oman coach said in the post-match press conference.
The experienced player, Ali al Busaidi, netted the late goal in the last ten minutes of the match and kept alive Oman’s hopes of earning direct qualification.
“The match was very tough match as we knew from the beginning that we were playing against the group topper and against Asian heavyweight team. They have top quality players who can change the game at any moment and make the difference. Although, the team players could manage to keep focus in defence and we broke all their attempts except one,” said Jaber.
“They scored from one mistake in the first half. In the following half, we played with much balanced way as we capitalised and netted the equaliser. It was a tough battle. We are with final outcome of the result as it is never easy to win or draw against the Asian favourite team at their home and in presence of the fans,” Jaber concluded.
Oman’s forthcoming assignment in the qualifiers will be against Kuwait on Tuesday with full confidence from this draw.
On the other hand, South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo was disappointed with the result.
“The defensive line gradually dropped deeper especially in the second half. Despite Oman did not create many scoring attempts but we still ended up conceding and this was disappointing,” the Korean coach said.
“This is the least convincing performance for the team in the final qualifying round. There were challenges due to new player combinations on the field but even from the start of the first half, we struggled,” Hong added.
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