Metsu not unduly bothered about semifinal rivals

Abu Dhabi: UAE's head coach Bruno Metsu said that he does not bother about which team he would have to face in the semifinals of the 18th Gulf Cup.

"If you want to win, you have to beat whichever team you face. There is no easy team in the last four and I have no worries about the other teams. I always concentrate on my team's performance," Metsu said in a press conference following his team's victory over Kuwait.

"I would like to congratulate all my players, those who played and those who were supporting them from the bench. Every one of my team has participated in this victory and I am also happy for the fans who were fantastic in supporting us.

"I said before that the fans' expectations are part of the pressure of the game but we used that to our advantage and hope to continue doing that in the remaining matches."

Metsu said that they have to forget the match against Kuwait and start their preparations for their semifinal against Saudi Arabia, scheduled for Saturday.

Meanwhile, Kuwait's assistant coach and spokesman Fawzi Ebrahim said that the promotion of the UAE will help in ensuring success for the tournament because they are the hosts and the fans would continue to throng the stadiums.

Ebrahim defended his team, saying that they played a good match but failed to win because of some good defending from the home team.

Kuwait's sports media personnel, however, blamed the technical staff for their team's early exit from the tournament. They grilled Ebrahim as to why he was playing with only three defenders while the UAE were using three strikers.

Ebrahim said: "We always apply a 3:4:3 attacking strategy and in this particular match, we needed to win because it was our only hope to remain in the tournament. We cannot adopt any defensive plans and still hope to win.

"We scored two goals and were attacking fiercely against the home team, but lack of experience for some of our young players deprived us from winning the match."

Kuwait and Yemen teams were expected to return home yesterday following their exit from the competition.