Jordan deserved win, says manager

Jordan coach Adnan Hamad maintains his side deserved their upset 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia, despite benefiting from a fortunate goal.

A seemingly harmless cross from Baha’a Abdul-Rahman evaded Saudi goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah to hand Jordan a shock lead in Thursday’s Asian Cup Group B match.

The world number 107 side then hung on for a famous win at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium, while Saudi Arabia – finalists in the 2007 soccer tournament – made an embarrassing group-stage exit.

“I respect (Saudi Arabia manager Nasser) Al Johar and the Saudi team but our winning over the Saudi team is a big accomplishment for the Jordan team,” Hamad said.

“We played in a realistic way but we did not win with luck. We played very well and our players produced a very good performance.”

“He (Abdullah) may have made a mistake and the mistake he has done is common in the world of football,” Al Johar added.

“We were lucky to score and in the second half we maintained our advantage and played very well.”

Saudi Arabia caretaker Al Johar only took charge of the team this week following the dismissal of Jose Peseiro, who was sacked in the aftermath of a 2-1 defeat to Syria on Sunday.

Despite seeing one of the pre-tournament contenders slump to a second consecutive defeat, Al Johar believes his side were unfortunate not to have found a way past the dogged Jordan defence.

“We didn’t fail,” Al Johar said.

“The Jordan team played defensive throughout the game and we could not reach the goal to score and we were unlucky.”

“The Saudi team played very well considering the circumstances. We missed a couple of chances to score and the Jordanian goal was luck.”