Noureddin Ayetah may have hogged the limelight with a handful of spectacular saves in Jordan’s 0-0 draw with Australia at the AFC U-23 Championship on Wednesday, however, the goalkeeper is certain he will not get ahead of himself despite his heroics playing a huge part in his side finishing second in Group D and booking their berth in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
The final Group D game at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium saw the Australians needing victory to advance to the last eight but they were never really able to dominate proceedings.
Whenever they did threaten, Ateyah rose to the challenge with a series of fine stops and crucial interceptions and, even when he was beaten in the dying moments of the match, his crossbar came to the rescue.
Next up for the Jordanians is tomorrow’s quarter-final tie with South Korea and Ateyah, who has only conceded once in the tournament so far in the 3-1 victory over Vietnam, insists that is now their sole focus.
“Now that we have qualified for the quarter-finals, we start with a clean slate,” said the Al Faisaly Amman custodian. “We’ll forget this match and we’ll prepare as best as we can for the next match. We promise to our fans that we’ll give it our best shot. Our players have a responsibility to do the best and we hope to reach the final of this competition.”
Despite the fact that they will be up against one of the tournament favourites, Ateyah believes Jordan have every reason to believe they can go all the way in their quest to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
“We know South Korea are a strong team and we respect them,” he added. “But our coach Jamal [Abu Abed] will definitely have plans for them and we’ll follow that. We want to enter the final of the tournament. We are going to Rio via Qatar.”
The other team to advance from Group D were the United Arab Emirates, who will face Iraq also tomorrow.