Riyadh: Qatar have nothing to fear from high-scoring Oman in Sunday’s Gulf Cup semi-final, according to Maroons assistant coach Serge Romano.

Oman beat Kuwait 5-0 in Thursday’s final group game to qualify as Group B toppers, after opening with two draws against the UAE 0-0 and Iraq 1-1.

Qatar, on the other hand, ambled to a runners-up spot in Group A with three draws against Saudi Arabia 1-1, Yemen 0-0 and Bahrain 0-0.

Despite the teams’ contrasting form, Romano says his players have nothing to be afraid of. “I don’t think Oman have put pressure on us,” he said. “I think, firstly, we have a young team with quality and, secondly, this is the first time some of our players have played in such a competition.

“In the first three matches, we didn’t have experience for this kind of competition and we played with a little bit of fear. But after this we learnt a lot and should be confident of beating Oman even if they won their last game 5-0.

“We saw how Oman played against Kuwait but the latter didn’t put any aggression in. If we can do that [play aggressively] then we have nothing to be afraid of. If we play our game, we have nothing to fear and can make difficulties for Oman to win.

“We’ve prepared and recovered well, and now we focus on this game. I believe if we play good football we are ready to play, compete and pass this round,” he added.

Oman coach Paul Le Guen denied Qatar were the easier team to face in the last four, given that the Maroons had finished second in Group A following three draws.

“We are not lucky to play Qatar,” he said. “We know the quality of the team and respect coach Djamel Belmadi and his players, they played a very good opener against Saudi.

“We celebrated a bit after the Kuwait game, but I am not a newcomer in football, I know the hardest thing is to confirm your status, and that’s what we have to do now. We won’t win 5-0 again, I know that, but our only aim is to qualify for the final and we should be focused on that.

“We are very happy to be playing in such a game and we are proud to be playing in a semi-final but we are ambitious and want to go further. We know we have a tough game against Qatar, we respect them a lot, but our ambition is to go further.”