SYR 3-0 IND: Mardakyan hails improved performance

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

SYR 3-0 IND: India gifts goals to Syrians

Midfielder Mahmoud Al Maowas (right) set up one as Syria defeated India 3-0 to book their place in the last eight.

TASHKENT – Syria joined free-scoring Korea Republic in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-16 Championship after recording a 3-0 win over India on Monday.

Asaad Al Khadr opened the scoring just before the break at MHSK Stadium after beating the India offside trap while two second half own goals following shots from Rabie Jmhaa wrapped up the win to maintain Syria’s 100% start and eliminate pointless India along with Indonesia.

Korea hold the edge over Syria at the top of Group B with a superior goal difference, but the two side’s meet on Wednesday to decide who advances to the last eight as group winners.

Syria began strongly as Jmhaa headed over inside the first three minutes before India goalkeeper Jayanta Paul clawed away an acrobatic close range effort from Mahmoud Saleh and Al Khadr headed wide.

Midway through the half Mohamad Kalaa-jei was allowed to advance unchallenged through the India midfield and forced Paul to palm his effort, which looked to be creeping inside the post, away from danger.

Syria had the ball in the net 13 minutes before the break but Rabie was adjudged to have been offside as he followed in after Paul could only palm away Saleh’s low strike from the edge of the area.

Paul needed a full-length diving save moments later to turn Kalaa-jei’s well struck dipping shot from the edge of the area around the post.

Syria were finally rewarded two minutes before the break as Mahmoud Al Maowas’ chipped ball forward caught the India defence flatfooted, allowing Al Khadr to narrowly beat the offside trap before firing across Paul, who managed to turn the ball onto the foot of the post but the shot had too much power and crept over the line.

On the stroke of half-time, Saleh rattled the India upright with Paul struggling to make up the ground across his goal.

Al Maowas drove a free-kick straight at Paul on the hour mark following a slow start to the second period before Jmhaa’s low drive across the face of goal deflected off an India defender who was tracking back to wrongfoot Paul and double Syria’s lead six minutes after the hour mark.

And with 18 minutes remaining Syria were handed a third as Jmhaa again shot across the face of goal from the edge of the area for defender Ashish Chettri to slice his attempted clearance past Paul from the six-yard line with the strike again heading wide.

Source:The AFC.com

IRN 2-1 UZB: Gay laments defensive errors

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