Katanec: UAE not out yet

Posted Sunday, January 16, 2011 by ESPN

UAE coach Srecko Katanec was disappointed after losing to Iraq, but hopeful they could still make it through.

UAE's loss came about in heart-breaking fashion after they had managed to contain the attacking Iraqis for most of the game.

With the game seemingly heading to a goalless draw, Walid Abbas scored an own goal to hand the three points to the defending champions and leave the quarter-final hopes of his own side dangling by a thread.

Katanec's charges have only one point from two games and are in danger of going out in the group stages, but the manager put on a brave front after the match.

In comments reported of AFC Asian Cup's official website, he said:"It is normal that we are all disappointed because we played a good match.

"To concede a goal in the last minutes is always hard but we must accept that because this is football.

"We have one more game to play and we must try to concentrate in the next four days. We have lost this match now but we can't change that and we have one more game left.

"In training we will work on everything. It is a shock for us to concede the goal after the good game that we had. The players must be strong because they are professional players."

UAE have yet to open their goal-scoring account in the competition - with their previous match against DPR Korea ending in a goalless draw. Katanec blamed the drought on the fact that the strikers don't get to play together often enough.

"The problem that we have is that our strikers don't play regularly," said the 47-year-old.

"In our clubs, the foreign strikers are always there so it's difficult to ask the players to produce a better performance than this.

"My players gave 100 per cent in their efforts and I'm proud of them. But we didn't score and while there were a lot of reasons for that, simply we also were not lucky while Iraq managed to get the three points."

"Sometimes we live moments like these and the players must learn something from this.

"As for our player [Abbas], he must keep his head up because this is football and it could happen to any player because it's part of the game.

"We were better in the game but this is football and we must play like this and score against Iran. We must look to win against Iran and then pray that Iraq will lose against DPR Korea."

UAE's inexplicably defensive performance against DPR Korea could yet come back to haunt them. The gulf side just refused to take the initiative in that game and let slip three crucial points from their grasp.

They will play Iran, who have already qualified for the quarters, on Wednesday, January 19.