Iraq coach: We made our own luck

Iraq coach Wolfgang Sidka says his side earned their luck in their 1-0 victory over the United Arab Emirates on Saturday.

In a pulsating Group D clash of Asia’s premier soccer tournament, both sides hit the woodwork twice before Waleed Abbas’ 93rd-minute own-goal gave Iraq a last-gasp victory.

The win was a welcome relief to Sidka, who watched his side waste a host of opportunities.

“It was a little bit lucky but at the end of the day we tried our best to force our luck in the game,” Sidka said.

“In the first half we played very well and we controlled the ball for 30 minutes while UAE dominated for 10 minutes and they had some chances. In the second half we were attacking and they attacked as well so it was exciting stuff. We had three strikers up front and I believe that we were rewarded.”

“Sometimes if you have bad luck, you must force your luck to get it back. I believe that today we managed to force our own luck and we did it with a fighting spirit.”

Sidka quickly switched focus to his side’s next clash, against North Korea for a place in the quarter-final stage on Wednesday.

“We got the three points tonight and we are happy,” he said.

“We must prepare for the next game and the good thing is that our chance to progress is in our own hands and I believe that we should expect a hard game against DPR Korea.”

UAE manager Srecko Katanec said he was disappointed with the result but did not blame his forwards for their profligacy in front of goal.

“It is normal that we are all disappointed because we played a good match,” Katanec said.

“To concede a goal in the last minutes is always hard but we must accept that because this is football.”

“The problem that we have is that our strikers don’t play regularly,” added the 47-year-old. “In our clubs, the foreign strikers are always there so it’s difficult to ask the players to produce a better performance than this.”

“My players gave 100 percent in their efforts and I’m proud of them. But we didn’t score and while there were a lot of reasons for that, simply we also were not lucky while Iraq managed to get the three points.”

Katanec said the brief for his players in their final group match is simple and admitted he will have his fingers crossed while Iraq play North Korea.

“We were better in the game but this is football and we must play like this and score against Iran. We must look to win against Iran and then pray that Iraq will lose against DPR Korea,” he said.