Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Amman: Oman maintained their two-point advantage at the top of Group A of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers after they held second-placed Jordan to a goalless draw in Amman on Tuesday.
While the home side created the better chances, neither team was able to manage a breakthrough in a tense encounter at the King Abdullah International Stadium.
Despite dropping their first points of the campaign, Oman remained firmly on course for a spot in the finals in Australia as they moved up to seven points, two ahead of Jordan and four in front of third-placed Singapore, who stunned Syria 2-1 earlier in the day.
“We came here to get a positive result and we got a point which will keep us on top of the group and this is really good because we were playing away and against one of the favourites who are also fighting for one of the group tickets,” said Oman coach Paul Le Guen.
“We didn’t play with our full squad as we were missing several key players but the boys today had a good match. The result will give us a big push in order to continue our aim to advance to the Asian Cup finals.”
Jordan were the better side in the opening half as they took control of midfield and created their first real opportunity in the 24th minute when a cross from the right found Yousef Rashdeh who sent an acrobatic volley narrowly wide.
Oman’s best opening of the match arrived just before the half-hour as Ismail Al Ajmi went past a couple of defenders before firing a powerful shot from just outside the area that was stopped by the Jordan goalkeeper Amer Shafi.
Shortly afterwards, the Jordanians worked the ball down the left flank and a cross picked out Ahmed Hayel, whose header shaved the left upright.
Jordan continued to exert much of the pressure in the second half but Oman goalkeeper Faiyz Al Rusheidi continued to frustrate the hosts.
The home side’s best chance for a victory that would have seen them leapfrog their opponents to the top of the group arrived in the final minute when a quick counter-attack saw the ball being crossed into the box towards substitute Abdallah Deeb, who met it with an overhead kick that was pushed aside by Al Rusheidi to preserve the deadlock.
“We didn’t have a good performance and personally I’m not satisfied with the way we played tonight especially as we prepared well for the match,” said Jordan coach Hossam Hassan.
“It’s really a big disappointment for me and hopefully we can fix the mistakes that we had tonight.”
“I was expecting a better performance from the players and that’s why I made early substitutions and we tried to go into attack in the second half. We had some scoring chances tonight but we didn’t take advantage of these chances."
Photo: AFP