Oman coach rues missed chances against Saudi Arabia

Muscat: Oman national football team coach Branko Ivankovic has said that his team would have won their FIFA World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia, had they made more of their scoring opportunities.

A solitary Saleh Al Shehri goal in the 42nd minute at Sultan Qaboos Stadium on Tuesday evening was enough to give the visitors three points and take a big step towards qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, to be held in Qatar.

“Unfortunately, we did not achieve the result that we worked for,” said Croatian Ivankovic in his post match press conference. “We played well and gave everything we had, but the result was not in our favour.

“In matches like this, we should take advantage of half-opportunities, and we missed a lot of good opportunities,” he added. “I congratulate my players for this performance. In the last two matches, we noticed a lot of improvement in the performance of the Omani team.”

Oman’s narrow defeat to the Saudis came after they stunned group favourites Japan in their opener, and Ivankovic said the team would work on the positives from both games, moving forward.

“The Saudi national team is good and they have many well known players, and we were a strong challenge to them,” said Ivankovic.

“We proved that we can compete with any strong team in Asia. I thank everyone for their efforts, and we will strive to achieve a better result in the next match.”

Oman and Saudi Arabia are both in Group B of the third round of the Asian theatre of qualifying. It consists of 12 teams split into two groups.

The teams that finish in the top two places in each group will go directly to next year’s World Cup. The next game for Oman is against Australia on October 7 in Sydney.