The Oman national football team arrived in Muscat earlier on Friday after their successful Thursday’s 1-0 victory over Vietnam in Group B of the AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar.
The team will open the preparation’s chapter for China match which will take place at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex venue on Tuesday.
At the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi city, Khalid al Hajri’s header ahead of the conclusion of the match by 25 minutes secured Oman’s third triumph in the Asian qualifiers.
Later on Thursday, China’s draw against Saudi Arabia 1-1 in Sharjah’s city confirmed officially Oman’s position at fourth place in group B standings.
Despite the victory, the Croatian coach, Branko Ivankovic, said post the match Oman were not at their best but they managed to snatch the desired three points.
“We expected Vietnam team to be tough as they were playing in front of their fans but our players managed to claim the winning points” Ivankovic added.
Responding to the opponent’s corners, the 68 years old said ”the corners will always to be dangerous and all the teams will try to get the most benefit from it. This happened for our team as Vietnam have many corners and they could score from it,” he pointed out.”
Coach Ivankovic affirmed that Vietnam have more younger members in the squad in this group. I am sure they will have a bright future,” he ended his statements in the post press conference.
Khalid al Hajri, who scored the only goal in the game, said the match was not easy for both sides. “Our target was to register the victory in this encounter and this happened. The triumph meant good advantage for improvement of Fifa world ranking. We as a team worked very hard to collect the winning points from this match despite that we are out from the competition on the three top places. However, as I said, this is a good victory for the team,” he concluded.
Red Warriors will resume training sessions on Saturday at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. The warm up sessions will continue until Tuesday’s concluding game against China.