Uzbekistan coach Robert Gay thought defensive mistakes led to the AFC U-16 Championship hosts' 2-1 defeat to Iran.TASHKENT – Uzbekistan coach Robert Gay was left to lament the defensive errors that cost his side a 2-1 loss to Iran in their second Group A match in the AFC U-16 Championship at Pakhtakor Stadium on Monday.
The Uzbeks entered the match high on confidence after a 7-0 win over Singapore in their opening game but were brought back down to earth by the Iranians who got a goal in each half by Mehrdad Yeganeh and Kaveh Rezaei before Oyatullahon Muhiddinov netted a late consolation for the hosts.
A mistake by Oybek Talipov resulted in Rezaei’s decisive strike 10 minutes into the second half but Gay did not want to single out the Uzbek goalkeeper for blame.
"We made some mistakes tonight which gave Iran the win," said the Russian in the post-match press conference.
"Our defenders made a lot of mistakes although we instructed them not to give up possession easily.
"As for Talipov, it was a stupid mistake but it was also the fault of the defenders who didn't clear the ball. We all make mistakes and that can have a psychological effect.
"To be honest we are much stronger than Iran and we should have won today," Gay added. "We played an attacking game but we shouldn't have waited until the last 10 minutes to score."
Iran coach Ali Doustimehr felt that his team deserved the win as they played a balanced game and made the most of their chances.
"I would like to thank Uzbekistan for their strong performance and I think that they will join us in the next stage," said Doustimehr.
"They are a very strong team and they had a good game.
"We played well today as we had a good balance between all of our lines," he added.
"We created a lot of chances and scored two goals and when Uzbekistan attacked we defended well.
"We deserved this win because we played well in all departments. We did everything as we hit the crossbar and we created a lot of scoring chances as well."
Source:The AFC.com
