Monday, January 10, 2011

We can do a Spain, says Qatar striker Hussein


QATAR striker Hussein Yasser says his team cannot be written off despite losing their opening Asian Cup match, citing the example of eventual winners Spain at the World Cup in South Africa.
The host nation allowed the pressure to get the better of them on Friday when they crashed 2-0 to Uzbekistan.
Hussein, one of his country’s best-known players, who once had a stint with the Manchester City reserves, believes they can still advance from Group A.
“We have to forget about it because we cannot replay the match,” said the 26-year-old of the Uzbek disaster.
“We still have matches against China and Kuwait so we still have two chances to qualify.”
China, who won their opening game 2-0, are their next opponents on Wednesday, with Kuwait awaiting them on Jan 16.
Hussein cited the example of Spain as an inspiration. They lost their first World Cup game 1-0 to Switzerland but still went on to win the tournament by beating Holland in the final.
“It’s not impossible but it’s going to be difficult to go through,” said Hussein.
“As we could see at the World Cup, Spain lost their first game and still won the tournament. So nothing is impossible in football but we have to perform better of course.
“I hope that we can forget about the Uzbekistan result because we have now to mentally recover for our game against China.”
Qatar coach Bruno Metsu conceded that his side were poor against Uzbekistan and Hussein accepts that he and his team-mates did not perform to expectations.
“I don’t want to make any excuses for why we lost. I think that the players felt the pressure of responsibility but we had to perform,” he told reporters.
“I’m one of the players that didn’t really perform at 100 per cent.
“Maybe the pressure was on us more than Uzbekistan but we had good chances in the first half, but in the second half we didn’t have control and they got their goals.”
  

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