Muscat, March 23
Oman will take on Vietnam in their penultimate match of Group B in the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar on Thursday. The match will be played at the My Dinh Stadium and will start at 4 pm Oman time.
Despite no chance to compete for the top three places in the group, Ivankovic’s men will look to capture three points from Vietnam in Hanoi and end the Asian qualifiers campaign in the fourth place. Also, Red Warriors will target to repeat home win in Muscat which ended 3-1.
Coach Branko Ivankovic, the head coach of the national team, voiced confident to deliver top show as this match is away from the qualification. “There is no pressure for both teams and I am expecting an open game from both sides. We have some injuries in the team including Issam al Subhi and Al Mundher al Alawi who are available in Muscat. Also, the medical team is closely following up for Mohsin al Ghassani, Mohammed al Ghafri and Fayez al Rusheidi’s injuries and will confirm their status later,” he said in a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
The 68-year-old affirmed that there are many other players who are in good status to take part in the game. “I assure that all the team members will deliver their top efforts for a good result. I observed Vietnam team in different games. They showed top game against China and delivered thrilling encounter in Australia’s match despite the difference in the rankings,” he added.
The Sultanate of Oman football team performed different training sessions during the last few days. The team began internal camp in Muscat and then had different sessions in Hanoi city. The last training sessions took place in the same venue of the match at the My Dinh Stadium. The Croatian experienced coach implemented different technical and tactical approaches during the warm-up sessions.
Ivankovic affirmed that both teams gained the required experience during the last tough games. “I am sure Vietnam team will be different than the previous game in Muscat and the same thing for the national team. I am looking for a win as it will be crucial to improve the Fifa ranking,” he ended.
Oman midfielder Harib al Saadi stated that the team’s goal in this match is to register the victory. “We know that the win will not help our qualification to the next round but for players we will fight for a win. It is difficult to predict the result but we will deliver all the efforts ending the match on winning note,” he said.
The qualifiers registered some memorable results for ‘Red Warriors’ including the most notably the historic win over the Asian heavyweights Japan in the opener in September. Oman suffered two successive defeats against Saudi Arabia (1-0) and Australia (3-1) in the next matches. Then, Oman beat Vietnam 3-1 before holding China to a 1-1 draw in Sharjah city. Later, Japan edged Oman 1-0 while Saudi Arabia repeated their win in the away game 1-0 while the last encounter against Australia ended in a 2-2 draw in Muscat.
