Riyadh: Manager-less Bahrain can still pose a threat for Qatar, according to The Maroons boss Djamel Belmadi.
The Reds sacked their Iraqi coach Adnan Hamad late on Monday after Bahrain opened their Gulf Cup account with a goalless draw over Yemen and a 3-0 defeat to hosts Saudi Arabia.
However, Qatar coach Belmadi — whose own side drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia and 0-0 with Yemen — said The Reds cannot be written off as he goes in search of victory to qualify to the semi-finals.
“It’s difficult when a team changes their coach mid tournament,” he said. “But I will not focus on that. I am more focused on what we have to do.
“You can never tell what the reaction will be when a coach leaves the team, you could have a good reaction or a bad reaction from the players. But I want to focus on what my players can do, that’s the most important thing.”
Belmadi added that he was confident his players could make up for two opening draws against their beleaguered final group game opponents. “If you analyse the last two games fairly, you will see we deserve to be on six points. We are doing everything for the win. Against Yemen we just lacked that opening goal, once we got that it would have been more.
“We will look to get that against Bahrain and in the rest of the competition. There is no doubt we must improve our efficiency. But I have full confidence in the ability of my players to go and do that.”
Bahrain’s interim coach Marjan Eid said his players would battle on despite Adnan Hamad’s departure. “It’s certainly difficult after the coach left, but we have confidence that the players will take responsibility.
“We aspired to win the previous two matches but only got a point. Now I hope we appear better in order to reach the semi-finals, especially as there is still hope of us doing so.
“We will try to win the game, and have the desire to do so, but there is little time between the fixture, so we will have to focus on our psychology.”
