Riyadh: Iraq assistant coach Safa Adnan Dawood denies his side are looking to avenge last year’s Gulf Cup final defeat to the UAE in their final group game against the emirates on Thursday.
The Lions of Mesopotamia lost 2-1 in extra-time to the UAE in Manama last January to record their only Gulf Cup defeat to the emirates in eight previous meetings.
Dawood, however, played down the need to get one over on Mahdi Ali’s men and instead focused on the latest ramifications of this encounter.
Iraq opened with a 1-0 defeat to Kuwait and then drew 1-1 with Oman to sit bottom of Group B with a point. Kuwait lead on four points having drawn their follow-up with the UAE 2-2, while the UAE, who drew their opener with Oman 0-0, are level with the sultanate on two points apiece.
Only a win for Iraq over the UAE and a draw or defeat for Oman against Kuwait will be enough to see coach Hakeem Shaker’s side progress, but his assistant Dawood didn’t seem confident.
“This tournament is to promote peace and love across Gulf nations, [so there’s no element of revenge],” he said. “Hopefully, we will represent our country with a good level to satisfy the fans.”
He then went about cooling his side’s contention for the tie with superlatives for the opposition. “Everyone knows we face a strong Emirates side that has played together for a long time,” he added. “We are a young and ambitious side, we lost our first game with Kuwait and that put pressure on us against Oman.”
Dawood added that an injury to experienced talisman Younus Mahmoud had further limited his side’s credentials.
“Mahmoud’s injury has affected the player’s psyche, but we are relying on younger attackers and the more they play together the greater harmony increases.”
Iraq coach Hakeem Shaker has continually failed to appear for post and pre-match conferences, instead sending his assistants Dawood and Abdul Kareem Salman. This has only fuelled speculation that under-fire Shaker could be the second coach behind Bahrain’s Iraqi boss Adnan Hamad to be sacked following a poor start to the tournament.
