Let’S ShOW JApAn thAt We Are A gOOd teAm, SAyS OmAn cOAch

SHARJAH Despite suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Uzbekistan, Oman have what it takes to put their Asian Cup campaign back on track, according to their coach Peter Verbeek.

In the 85th minute of their Group F encounter on Wednesday, Uzbek substitute Eldor Shomurodov’s brilliant individual goal condemned Oman to a 2-1 defeat.

Now Oman — a team that have never gone past the groups stages in their Asian Cup history — face a must-win battle against mighty Japan in their next game on January 13.

“That’s the good part about the AFC Asian Cup, you have three days to prepare and then you go again. I love to play against Japan. They’re the best team in Asia. Let’s show them that we have a very good team,” Verbeek said at the post-match press conference.

Oman have come into this tournament with a talented squad and they dominated Uzbekistan for large parts of their opening game only to lose the three points to the individual brilliance of the 23-year-old Shomurodov.

“We were not lucky in the first half, two corner kicks, open chances, reflexes of the goalkeeper, so you need a little luck. It’s important in games like this,” said Veerbek.

“We were trying to find out what the weak spots were of the opponents. Uzbekistan scored from a free-kick, that’s unlucky. The goal came from a set-piece and not open play.”

Even Uzbekistan coach Hector Cuper praised the Oman fightback in the second half after they conceded a goal in the 34th minute.

“In the second half, we played very well and it was a good game. We had plenty of attacks and saw a lot of the ball and scored a good goal,” Verbeek said.

“You should at least reward yourself to at least take home a point or fight for the three points. But you should never ever lose that game. So we have to recover from this loss very soon.”