Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno has turned his attention to Tuesday’s home match against Uzbekistan after watching his team lose 2-0 to Iran in the final phase of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Thursday.
The Uruguayan was of the opinion that Qatar deserved a better result, but was left ruing individual errors that cost them three points in Tehran where the hosts struggled for most part of the game before clinching victory with two dramatic injury-time goals.
“I can only say that I’m sorry for the defeat, we will be better in our next games,” said Carreno.
“We had a good match, the teams were aware of one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Both teams had limited space to play in as we knew each other very well. They were seeking to score from high crosses but we didn’t allow them to do so. However we conceded a goal by making an individual mistake.”
With the Uzbekistan match looming, Carreno said that the Iran result should not weigh down the team.
‘’We have now closed the book on the Iran match, we must now focus on our next game with Uzbekistan. Playing in Doha will hopefully help us to perform to our standards, but in order to get there, we have to give it our all and we have to be fully prepared when game day comes.’’
Meanwhile, Qatar defender Pedro Correia said Qatar had more chances to score against Iran, adding his team fought well in Tehran.
“We played a good match,” Correia said on Thursday. “We were close to winning since we had more chances to score,” the Al Sadd defender said.
“Clearly we were in control of the game for most parts of the game,” he said. “There’s no doubt that a loss is never pleasing. We will continue to work hard.
“We have just launched our journey. Now we turn our focus to the second game.”
“We want our fans to turn up in huge numbers when we play against Uzbekistan,” he said.
Iran’s coach Carlos Queiroz was all praise for Qatar.
“We had a very difficult game,” said Queiroz. “It was a tense and highly tactical match. It was obvious that Qatar was looking to take advantage of our weaknesses in the first half, therefore we had a difficult first half.
“We tried to open up the game in the second half and put Qatar under more pressure. We had better scoring chances in the second half.
“This Qatari side is a really good team because it is organised and they have good players. To be able to win the match, we had to fully focus and keep our opponents under pressure until the very last moment. We forced them to retreat.
“I think the goal we scored revealed the truth about the game and if one of the teams deserved a win it was definitely Iran. The second goal came so naturally since Qatar had nothing to lose and they were looking for a draw.”