Australia national team coach Graham Arnold said that the AFC Asian Cup Qatar, scheduled from January 12 to February 10, will be highly competitive, but he is looking forward to winning the title with the Soceroos.
After arriving in in Doha on Monday, Arnold said his team is happy to return to Qatar again after the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and look forward to performing well during the continental tournament. The Australian team also finished runner-up in the 2011 edition in Qatar, where they lost the final to Japan 1-0. They are looking forward to reaching the final again in Qatar, but want to cross the final hurdle.
Australia also performed well in the Qatar World Cup, where they reached last 16 of the World Cup before losing to eventual winners Argentina. Arnold said he was satisfied with the preparations made by his team for the tournament. Australia play in Group B alongside Uzbekistan, Syria and India. They begin their journey by facing India on January 13, then meet Syria on January 18, and conclude the group stage by facing Uzbekistan on January 23.
Before arriving in Doha, Australia beat Bahrain in friendly match in Abu Dhabi. Arnold reflected on his side’s performance, labelling it the perfect fixture to round off the Socceroos Asian Cup preparations. “For us, I think, for us, it’s the perfect fixture to have before the Asian Cup,” Arnold said. “You know, when we play against these types of nations, they sit back. Most nations we played against in the last twelve months haven’t really done that. I think, you know, they’re a strong nation that’s getting stronger, and like a lot of the Middle Eastern nations, physically, they were quite bigger than what we expected.”
Arnold addressed his team’s squad depth leading into the tournament. He has plenty of new faces in his squad but they know the conditions in Doha well and he will hope the togetherness and fighting spirit behind their success at the World Cup have survived the personnel changes.
“Well, this is, you know, the purpose of what I’ve tried to do the last four years is win games, but at the same time, create depth. If you look at the six players I bought on, you know, four years ago, I probably wouldn’t have had anywhere near that depth. You know, I’ve got headaches. I’m gonna have headaches over the next few weeks around the starting lineups. It’s great to have that depth, but as I said, I’ll have a few headaches over the next few weeks,” he said.
Australia are participating in the continental showpiece for the fourth time. Their first appearance was in the 2007 .
Australia national team coach Graham Arnold
