SHARJAH, JAN 7 - Palestine battled to a goalless draw against Syria in an intense Group B match of the AFC Asian Cup 2019 at the Sharjah Stadium in the UAE on Monday night. Fancied Syria had the lion’s share of the possession with 62 per cent against the 38 per cent by Palestine. But Palestine showed great composure at the defence to deny Syrians a goal despite being reduced to 10 men in the 68th minute.
“We did everything that is possible for us to score a goal. But compliments to the Palestine team, they fought well and blocked our frontline players from finding the target,” Syrian head coach Bernd Stange said after the match.
“We missed a handful of clear chances. We are disappointed not to have won the match.”
“It was a difficult game as Palestine players were very tight on marking our strikers,” the German coach said.
Stange thanked the huge support from the Syrian fans at the stadium.
“The support from the fans gives us great energy. We will try our best to keep our fans happy in our next game against Jordan,” he said.
Jordan had created an upset by stunning defending champions Australia 1-0 in an earlier match on Sunday. Syria will play Jordan on January 10, while Palestine will face Australia a day later.
Palestine upbeat
Palestine coach Ould Ali Noureddine was happy after earning a point against Syria.
“This is a historical first ever point for Palestine in the Asian Cup. I am happy for the players after the fighting draw,” the Algerian said. He said the red card and yellow cards completely changed their plans for the game.
“A red card and a couple of yellow cards really stopped us from implementing many of our plans for the game. We could only rely on counter attacks after the red card for Mohammed Saleh,” Noureddine said.
Palestine defender Mohammed Saleh was shown red card in the match after picking up two yellow cards. In the first half, he got a yellow for a tackle on Syrian midfielder Fahad Youssef.
In the second half, Saleh got the marching orders from the Uzbek referee Ravshan Irmatov after a collision during a header attempt against Syrian star striker Omar Khrbin. Other Palestine players to receive yellow cards were defender Musab Battat and midfielder Jonathan Zorilla. Palestine captain Abdallatif al Bahdari said his team defended well against a star-studded Syrian line-up.
“I am personally very happy that we could stop a player like Omar Al Soma. Our team really deserve the point. It was a spirited performance from us,” the defender said.
ROUSING START
Earlier, it was a festive start to the first match of the AFC Asian Cup at the Sharjah Stadium. The capacity crowd — mostly Syrian supporters — were cheering “Syria..Syria” throughout the match. The match started with Syrian attack and Omar Khrbin’s header created panic in the Palestine defence.
Omar Khrbin was involved again in another promising attack in the 27th minute but his well-directed header was acrobatically saved by Palestine goalkeeper Rami Hamada.
Syria earned a corner in the 33rd minute but could not make any impact.
In the 40th minute, Syria replaced Osama Omari with Yousef Kalfa.
Next up, Palestine came with their first real shot on goal but could not threaten Syrian goalkeeper Ibrahim Alma, who had a field day except on some rare occasions. The match saw Syria’s 13 shots on goal and six on target against three by Palestine and nil on target. However, it was Palestine who emerged as heroes after making a good start to their Asian Cup campaign.
Syria on the other hand, face an injury concern to midfielder Osama Omari, who according to coach Stange would need to recover from the knee injury suffered during the match.
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