Yemen will have to raise the bar against Saudi Arabia: Coach Miroslav Soukup

Riyadh: Yemen boss Miroslav Soukup admits their final Group A game against tournament hosts Saudi Arabia on Wednesday evening will represent a journey into the unknown for him and his unheralded players.

The Yemenis have already achieved their own slice of footballing history at this Gulf Cup by accruing two points for the very first time with consecutive 0-0 stalemates against Bahrain and Qatar.

Nonetheless, if the lowest-ranked side at his competition are to prolong their adventure any further from here, Soukup knows they’ll have to raise their performance levels even more against the Saudis and he is unsure as to whether or not that’s possible right now.

“The Saudi Arabian team are the favourites,” the Czech coach admitted. “Every side in our group is 70 or 80 places above us (in the FIFA World Rankings). If we want to even think about some success, we must play much better than we did against Bahrain and Qatar.

“But, up until now, I don’t know if we can. The first two games are maybe our maximum at this point in time. I just don’t know.

“After this tournament, we must analyse our performance, our mistakes and our plus points.”

Yemen then will adopt their usual role of marauding minnows against the home outfit at the King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi capital.

But, it’s clear Saudi coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro won’t be underestimating the threat posed by the perceived underdogs and rank outsiders.

“Yemen are a very dedicated and well-organised them and they’ve been a major surprise at this tournament,” Caro commented.

“We want to win this match though and we must be physically and technically strong in order to do so.

“When you want to have a good performance, there must be commitment and hard work and those two attributes should be with any player in any fixture.

“Winning does not come through names, but by working hard in the game and the players have prepared psychologically for this match.”

Elsewhere, Bahrain’s build-up for their final-round encounter with Qatar has been less than ideal. They sacked their Iraqi manager Adnan Hamad on Monday due to the team’s “poor performance”, “negative results” and “unconvincing technical level” according to an official Bahrain Football Association (BFA) statement.

Hamad has been replaced by his assistant Marjan Eid, who is looking for an improved showing from his struggling side.

“We hope that the team will be in better shape,” he admitted. “There will not be many changes to the starting line-up, maybe only one or two."

“We can still qualify for the semi-finals and, while it will be difficult, we have the confidence to do so.

“Our ambition is to win the match and we have the desire to emerge victorious.”

The preparations of the Bahrainis isn’t seemingly of much concern or interest to Qatar coach Djamel Belmadi, whose concentration is clearly fixed on his own squad and how they are shaping up.

“Of course, it’s always difficult for everybody when you change a coach during the competition,” the Algerian conceded.

“But, I will not be focusing on these things and I’ll be more focused on what we have to do. I don’t want to focus on that. I want to focus on my players as that’s the most important thing.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com