Riyadh: Bahrain caretaker coach Marjan Eid blamed working conditions for his sides’ Gulf Cup exit following a 0-0 draw with Qatar on Wednesday.
The Reds had sacked coach Adnan Hamad just two days before the decisive final group game, after they followed up an opening 0-0 draw against Yemen with a 3-0 defeat to hosts Saudi Arabia.
Eid said the dismissal and his subsequent promotion hadn’t left him with enough time to prepare the squad for the Qatar game, which if they had won, would have seen them qualify for the semi-final.
“We came out empty-handed under the conditions of the previous two games,” he said. “Organising the team in time was too big a task and eventually we only got to within 80 per cent of the level we had hoped to reach.”
Qatar had a goal disallowed in the first quarter but Bahrain rallied back and could have stolen it at the end when Abdullah Hazaa’s header was cleared off the line by Boualem Khoukhi.
“We deserved to win and got plenty of opportunities but luck wasn’t on our side,” added Eid. “I have to thank the players, both on and off the field, for carrying on like men even after the circumstances of the last two games.
“Qatar competed to qualify and this made the game even more difficult for us, but I feel good about our performance in the match.”
Eid added that he didn’t blame former coach Hamad for the team’s early exit from the tournament. “I appreciate what Adnan tried to do for us, I tried to continue his hard work but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. Maybe if we had tried harder, things would have ended better.”
Eid then left it open ended when asked if he would like to take full charge of Bahrain ahead of January 9-31’s Asian Cup. “I’ve only trained the team once and we’ve come out with a good performance and were able to compete,” he said. “Depending on God’s will, next time we will be better.”
