Arbil coach Odisho magnanimous in defeat

Odisho’s side suffered heartache in a penalty shootout after 120 scoreless minutes in the heat and humidity of the Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium and the defeat comes two years after Arbil lost to Kuwait Sports Club at the same stage of the competition in 2012.

“In the first half, Al Qadsia played the better football but in the second half we did well, and also in extra time,” said Odisho, whose side lost 4-2 in the shootout. “But when it goes to penalties, this is what happens in football so congratulations to Al Qadsia club.

“With the Kuwaiti clubs, we are unlucky and we’re disappointed but there’s nothing we can do about it now. So, when we go back we will go back to working on our games for the Iraqi league because quite a few of them were postponed so we could play in this competition.”

Arbil rarely threatened in the early stage of the match but, in the final quarter of the game, the Iraqis finally started to make their presence known, going close on several occasions.

However, neither side was able to score during regulation or extra time and the game went to penalties, with the Iraqis given an early chance to gain the upper hand when Dhary Saeed missed Al Qadsia’s second spot kick.

But substitute Hawar Mohammed hit the crossbar with the next kick to leave the scores level and, when Ali Faez Atiyah saw his effort saved by Nawaf Al Khaldi, Danijel Subotic was left to convert from the spot for Al Qadsia and take the title.

“My midfielders weren’t doing the job I wanted them to do 100 percent, but I tried to keep everything as tight as we could,” said Odisho of his team’s performance in the first half.

“We changed tactics and I knew we were controlling the game and they did as I planned but it wasn’t enough.

“The weather helped the Kuwait team, for them it’s normal but for us we’re not used to it.”