Felix Sanchez lauded his Qatar side for getting their job done by qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Finals following their 1-0 win against Oman on Monday.
Hassan al-Haydos’ first half penalty steered Qatar to their seventh win in eight matches as the reigning AFC Asian Cup champions completed their fixtures with a haul of 22 points to finish as Group E winners to seal their place in the China 2023 Finals.
“Qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup is the latest achievement for Qatari football and it’s a happy day for us,” said Sanchez. “I hope we can continue producing good results with the team. The match was difficult against a persistent team who tried their best to equalise. We were also affected by the injuries of Musab Kheder and Boualem Khoukhi during the match and this put more pressure on us. At the end of the day we achieved our target, which was to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup. We will give the players a few days of rest and then resume working because we have a new challenge in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in USA this summer.”
Despite the defeat, Oman head coach Branko Ivankovic praised the performance of his players and felt they were worthy of at least a share of the points.
“Congratulations to Qatar for their win. They have been the best team in Asia in the last few years and they deserve to be on top of the group,” said Ivankovic. “Our players performed well and created many scoring chances but we were not lucky while the weather also affected them.
“I expect that we can qualify from the group and we hope to win the last two matches. We will give our best in those matches and hopefully, we can advance as one of the best runners-up.”
Oman will face Afghanistan on Friday before taking on Bangladesh on June 15 in their push to advance to the Third Round of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup as one of the best five second-placed finishers.
Meanwhile, India’s Head coach Igor Stimac praised his players determination following 2-0 triumph over Bangladesh. Despite dominating, India were left frustrated by a disciplined Bangladesh and had talisman Sunil Chhetri to thank for the win, with the captain’s late brace steering Stimac’s side to their first win in seven matches.
The three points saw India move into third place in the standings on six points and a win in their final tie against Afghanistan on June 15 will confirm they finish in that position and advance to the third round of the Asian Qualifiers for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.
“I think we absolutely deserved the win, there was no doubt who was the better side over 90 minutes,” said Stimac. “We presented football as it should be, the way we want to play always but of course it’s not always possible. But when we are the favourites against lower-ranked teams this is the way we would like to play. I’m very happy, especially for the Indian supporters. My players did everything they could to get the win. It was not possible in the previous match (against Qatar) but today we got a deserved victory. All credit to the players, they executed the game plan perfectly.”
“As I mentioned before, if we don’t get a single point out of the three games here all I ask from my players is to do well and represent the country. If we are going to lose the game, we are going to lose as a team. I’m just proud of my team. They work their socks off everyday. They are serious and are learning very quickly and I feel that the future is bright for Indian football. I can’t predict what’s going to happen with some of the senior players but some of the younger ones have shown great potential, especially Ihsan Pandita and Liston Colaco.”
Felix Sanchez
