Bahrain face mammoth task against South Korea in opening game of AFC Asian Cup

TDT | Manama                                                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain must rise to the challenge and “deliver a great performance” today when they face continental giants South Korea in their opening match of the AFC Asian Cup.

This was highlighted yesterday by head coach Juan Antonio Pizzi, who was speaking ahead of the national team’s Group E clash against their heavily favoured opponents.

“We know they have elite players,” Pizzi was quoted as saying yesterday in his pre-match Press conference. “In order for us to be able to compete, we need every player to give 100 per cent. “We cannot rely on one or two players; we need all 11 to deliver a great performance.”

Today’s game is scheduled for a 2.30pm kick-off, Bahrain time, at Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in the Qatari city of Al Rayyan.

Pizzi said that Bahrain have been gearing up intensively for the competition, and are now set for likely their biggest test of the group stage against a star-studded South Korean side that features Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan, and Bayern Munich’s Kim Minjae.

“Our preparation period has been quite short but thankfully, the players have been implementing my instructions and ideas well,” Pizzi said.

“We know that we need to give more but we will stay the course and focus on the objective we set when I took over. “Of course we are very optimistic, we know that we have three tough matches ahead of us. Korea have great players but we’ll try to mitigate them and hopefully we’ll get a good result.”

Pizzi is appearing in the AFC Asian Cup for the second successive edition. He was at the helm of Saudi Arabia in the 2019 tournament, when they exited in the round of 16 after losing to Japan 0-1.

Bahrain were also eliminated from the competition at that stage, and it was the South Koreans who botted them out with a narrow 2-1 victory in extra-time.

Ambitions

Pizzi said: “We have the same optimism and the same ambitions and we want to take it step by step to realise our ambition. Right now our objective is to qualify for the Round of 16.”

The Bahrainis played two friendly matches earlier this month as part of their final leadup to the AFC Asian Cup, but lost both their games to Australia and Angola and were unable to find the net both times. Pizzi remained upbeat, however, that the goals will come.

“Goals are always scored as a result of good performance,” he said. “We have individual skills, we have a strong midfield, and we will try to use our link up play to good effect.”

Meanwhile, South Korea’s head coach, 1990 FIFA World Cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann, said that they are not taking anything easy, despite being the Group E favourites, and added that his players are completely focused on today’s contest.

“Every game will be a nail-biter,” said the German. “Every team here is strong and we will not underestimate any opponent and think about the future.

“We are only thinking about the next game which is Bahrain. This is our message to the team, to be only focused on the next step. We expect a difficult game but we want to do well and we want to stay here until the very end.”

Bahrain completed their preparations yesterday with a training session attended by Bahrain Football Association vice-president His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Pizzi has 26 players on the national team roster in Doha.

They include goalkeepers Sayed Mohammed Jaafar, Ebrahim Luthfallah and Abdulkarim Al Fardan; defenders Amine Benadi, Sayed Mahdi Baqer, Waleed Al Hayyam, Salem Hussain, Mohammed Adel, Hussain Al Aker and Abdulla Al Khalasi; midfielders Hazza Ali, Mohammed Abdulwahab, Moses Atede, Mohammed Hardan, Ebrahim Alwali, Mohammed Abdulqayoom, Jassim Al Shaikh, Jassim Khelaif, Mohammed Marhoon, Komail Al Aswad and Ebrahim Al Khattal; and forwards Ali Hassan Saeed, Ali Madan, Mahdi Humaidan, Abdulla Al Hashash and Abdulla Yusuf.

Bahrain are making their seventh appearance in the AFC Asian Cup, having qualified for the competition’s sixth straight edition.

Their best finish to date was fourth overall in the 2004 tournament held in China.