Manama: Coach Abdulaziz Abdo is dreaming of a place in the quarter-finals at the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016 as Bahrain take on winless Thailand in their final Group A clash at Khalifa Sports City Stadium on Wednesday.
The tournament hosts came within touching distance of a victory over current leaders Korea Republic on Sunday, only for their opponents to score two goals in the final ten minutes to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
Abdo’s side must now overcome Thailand, who have lost matches to Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia so far, to put themselves in the best possible position to qualify for the knockout stage.
The implications of a likely three-horse race are not lost on the Bahrain coach as he prepared his team for this crunch fixture.
“It will be a great opportunity for us and we will play as hard as we can so that we can move on to the next stage,” said Abdo.
“Bahrain are in second place now, so we know we have to win and everyone will have to work hard to go through.
“We will try to help our players, not only tactically but we have to bring our players up again [after the loss to Korea Republic].
“We have a psychological coach with us and this is part of my responsibility to motivate our players for the upcoming game.”
Standing in Bahrain’s way are Thailand, who go into this fixture with only slim hopes of making the next round but also a determination to make up for two heavy losses.
The young War Elephants were crushed 4-0 by a rampant Saudi Arabia side on Sunday, as their opponents ran away with the match in the second half.
“We’ll do our best against Bahrain,” said coach Anurak Srikerd.
“I will give chances to my players to show what they can do in this last group game.
“We want the people of Thailand to be happy with this team.”
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Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia know they will have to defeat an unbeaten Korea Republic in Sunday’s simultaneous kickoff at Bahrain National Stadium if they are to give themselves the best chance of avoiding an early exit.
Saad Al Shehri’s team looked at their attacking best against Thailand with forward Rakan Al Anaze in irresistible form but they will no doubt recall the opening day defeat to Bahrain, when they came back from two goals down only to concede a late winner.
“My players worked hard against Thailand because we needed the win and the three points,” said Al Shehri.
“In the days before the second game we were focused on Thailand, but now the Saudi players will show us what they have against the strongest team in the group.
“We will try our best. Insha’Allah, we will win this next game against Korea Republic.”
Opponents Korea Republic have the sole perfect record in Group A so far and are in the driving seat in this qualification race but coach An Ik-soo is taking nothing for granted.
“The most important thing was to make sure the players had some rest and were recovered,” said An.
“It is a very tight schedule and we will see how we perform against Saudi Arabia.”
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com