Syria's bench celebrate the 3-0 win over India that took them through to the quarter-finals.TASHKENT – Coach Kifork Mardakyan was pleased after Syria lived up to his promise and delivered a much improved performance on Monday to secure an AFC U-16 Championship quarter-finals berth after recording a 3-0 win over India.
Syria struggled to a 2-1 opening day win over Indonesia, but Mardakyan insisted his side would improve as the tournament progressed.
And Syria delivered at MHSK Stadium as Asaad Al Khadr opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before two second half own goals ensured Mardakyan’s side joined Korea Republic in the last eight and eliminate India and Indonesia.
“I am satisfied and pleased,” said Mardakyan. “I said after the first game against Indonesia that the team would be better in the next game and progress and they have done that with that performance.”
With Sunday’s quarter-finals in mind, Mardakyan could ring the changes in the group decider against Korea, who top the table also with a 100% record but hold the advantage with a superior goal difference, as he eyes potential testing last eight meetings with Iran and Uzbekistan.
“We have some injuries and maybe some players will be rested as we are looking to the quarter-finals,” he added. “Our aim was to reach the quarter-finals and we have achieved that.”
India Technical Director Colm Toal was gracious in defeat, but remained positive despite his side’s elimination from the tournament at the first opportunity following back-to-back defeats.
“We did the best we could, but we just got out played. They came out with a lot of determination and enthusiasm, they were very lively and had a lot of skill and a lot of athletes and they were just the better team,” he said.
“I hoped we could head into half-time at 0-0, but then we gave the goal away before and we lost any momentum we had.”
Toal refused to point the finger at his side, who have been together on-and-off in Goa for over a year, following encouraging results in the lead up to the championships in Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United States and England.
“Whatever happens in the last game there will be plenty of pride in the team. I don’t think you can define this team’s performance over the last 15 months by what happens over these three games,” added Toal.
“I hope people back in India are not critical of what this team has done. They have represented India in a very fine way.”
Source:The AFC.com
