Satisfied with his team\u2019s spirited performance despite the 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening match, Ivankovic is certain Oman have what it takes to bounce back and reignite their knockout stage hopes.
\n\u201cWhen we saw the draw, we knew that it was a difficult group. With all due respect to our next opponents, our primary objective is to win,\u201d said the Croat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are fully prepared and want to be focused and play as good a game as we did against Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against three-time champions Saudi Arabia, Oman held on to their 1-0 lead for 78 minutes before conceding twice which – according to Ivankovic- was a clear indication of what his players are capable of.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proved against Saudi Arabia that we are able to match any opponent we face. They are one of the top favourites and were the only team to beat the world champions (Argentina) last year (FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022). Against such a tough opponent, we lost out only in the 97th minute. <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the anger and sadness of the fans but I have a lot of belief in this team. I am proud of them and am not going to make unnecessary changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThailand had a terrific opening game and while there is pressure on us to bounce back, we enjoy it because that\u2019s what football is all about \u2013 performing under pressure. My responsibility is to establish a winning culture in the dressing room and motivate my boys to give their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thailand kicked off their journey with a 2-0 victory against the Kyrgyz Republic but head coach . Masatada Ishii has refused to let his players get carried away. <\/p>\n
\u201cStarting the competition on a winning note is obviously great and it gave us a fair idea of how well-prepared we are,\u201d said Ishii, who led Kashima Antlers to the J1 League in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we were handed a heavy defeat by Japan (5-0 in a friendly) not so long ago. So, while I\u2019m pleased to have collected three points, I think there is still work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cOman have a very strong midfield and a lot of our work is to find ways to contain them. If you look at their earlier game, they got their lead and resorted to defending. It\u2019s just that a team like Saudi Arabia is good enough to break that down and overcome the deficit and thus, we have a lot of work to do. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Satisfied with his team\u2019s spirited performance despite the 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening match, Ivankovic is certain Oman have what it takes to bounce back and reignite their knockout stage hopes. \u201cWhen we saw the draw, we knew that it was a difficult group. With all due respect to our next opponents, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":931133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20967],"tags":[3733,28042],"class_list":["post-931132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-news","tag-afc","tag-afc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=931132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/931133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=931132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=931132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=931132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}