Baroot hails hosts’ spirit

AFC – FUJARAH, UAE head coach Eid Baroot was delight with the never-say-die attitude of his players as the AFC U-19 Championship hosts scored a late equaliser against Iran to ensure they remain in the hunt for a quarter-final berth going into the final round of Group A matches.

Alireza Jahan Bakhsh’s 70th minute goal put the Iranians on course for a second successive win which would have seen them through to the quarter-finals but Saeed had other ideas and his 83rd minute header ensured that the spoils were shared at the Emirates Club Stadium on Monday.

“I have never seen such commitment and fight from my players,” beamed Baroot at the post-match press conference.
“They played another full match just 48 hours after our opener and they were magnificent. We deserved at least a point from the match.

“We are still in the tournament and we will try our very best to get a result against Japan on Wednesday. There are qualities all over in this tournament but we must focus on our task and try to progress to the quarter-final,” he added.

Iran coach Akbar Argi didn’t quite agree with his counterpart, insisting that the hosts had a ‘lucky escape’ as his side had to settle for the draw when a win would have booked their ticket to the quarter-finals.

“With the utmost respect to the UAE I must say that the equalizer was a lucky escape for them,” argued Argi.

“They only created two chances in the match and converted one while we had around seven good opportunities to score but we were successful only once.

“I must say that the match was a good physical encounter and a draw with the hosts is not a bad thing to take. If someone asked me you are going to get one draw then I would have preferred this one as it was against the hosts.”

The UAE’s second 1-1 draw, following their tie with Kuwait, put them third in the Group A standings with two points, two less than leaders Iran and one less then second-place Japan, who the UAE will face in a must-win match on Wednesday.