Yemen coach Sami Al Nash and his players celebrate their shock 2-1 win over AFC U-16 champions Japan.TASHKENT – Coach Sami Al Nash was delighted as his carefully laid out plan worked to perfection for Yemen, who recorded a dramatic 2-1 win over Japan on Thursday to win Group D ahead of the defending champions.
The tight contest was heading for a draw which would have sent Japan, who were already assured of a place in the last eight before kick-off, through as group winners and Yemen as runners-up after captain Mohammed Al Shamsi’s penalty had cancelled out Tatsuya Uchida’s 52nd minute opener.
But in the fifth and final minute of added time, Ahmed Al Baidhani skipped past Yoshiaki Takagi's diving challenge to fire home with virtually the last kick of the game to send Yemen into a quarter-final meeting with Saudi Arabia on Sunday while Japan face a clash with Australia.
“Japan are the defending champions and one of the favourites to win in Uzbekistan so we planned to defend to ensure we advance to the second stage,” said Al Nash.
“Japan like to attack and score in the first 10 or 15 minutes so to address that we looked to defend well and get through to half-time level. If there were any chances we would look to take them, but we set out to defend.
“In the second half we waited until the first 15 minutes to pass and looked to take advantage as Japan became frustrated.
“Our aim was always to advance to the next stage, either in first place or second, but we are lucky to go through in first.”
His counterpart Yutaka Ikeuchi was quick to concede that Japan, who had earlier defeated Malaysia 4-0 and United Arab Emirates 6-1, were simply beaten by the better team.
“We set out to win the game, but Yemen were the better team. We performed as we would normally and tried to win,” said Ikeuchi.
“We want to win every game, but Yemen’s attack played better than we did in defence.”
Despite the defeat, Ikeuchi insisted Japan can still achieve their goal of securing a place at the U-17 World Cup and was quick to defend his decision to rest several players with a place in the quarter-finals already assured.
“Any player should be ready to take the opportunity to play,” he added.
“They are all in the squad to play and would not have been selected if they couldn’t.”
Source:The AFC.com
