Riyadh: Iraq assistant coach Abdul Kareem Salman hasn’t given up hope of qualifying from the group despite following up an opening 1-0 defeat to Kuwait with a 1-1 draw with Oman on Monday.
The Lions of Mesopotamia went ahead inside the first quarter after Ali Al Habsi fumbled a save from a corner to tee-up Yassir Kasim for a chip into an open net.
Oman equalised after the interval when Ali Adnan handled Sa’ad Suhail’s shot in the box and Ahmad Kano slotted the resulting penalty into the bottom left.
After the UAE followed up their opening goalless stalemate with Oman with a 2-2 draw with Kuwait on Monday, Kuwait lead the group on four points ahead of UAE and Oman on two points each, leaving Iraq bottom on a point. But this doesn’t faze Salman.
If last year’s runners-up Iraq beat defending champions UAE in their final group game on Thursday and Kuwait either beat or hold Oman to a draw, The Lions could still qualify.
“Hope remains in the last round of fixtures for us to contend and determine our final status in the group,” he said. “We are in a difficult situation after the opening defeat to Kuwait but the players want to compensate for that loss.
“We wanted three points against Oman, but we didn’t want to take too many risks by going forward after they equalised. Oman was trying to win too, so it was important to concentrate on defence.
“It was natural after the effort of the first half that we couldn’t continue to push forward, our attackers are also young and internationally inexperienced.”
Oman coach Paul Le Guen, meanwhile, was just as disappointed his players didn’t make the most of their chances toward the end.
“I am satisfied with our behaviour but I’m not satisfied with two points from two games, we played well and deserved to win but we were unlucky.
“We can be proud of this performance, but we hope to prove our efficiency in the next game.
“Kuwait is an intelligent team and we have to respect that but be ambitious also, we’ve shown we can compete at the level of others and we are not beneath them, so we should be confident.”
