Osieck sings Schwarzer´s praises

Holger Osieck admitted Australia could have lost their Asian Cup match to Bahrain were it not for goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

The Socceroos beat the Gulf nation 1-0 in Doha on Tuesday thanks to a long-range effort from Mile Jedinak, but it was a number of clutch saves from the Fulham custodian at the other end which kept Bahrain scoreless and propelled Australia to the top of Group C.

“We know the quality that Mark has to offer to the team and I’m happy to have him there,” Osieck said.

“He had an excellent performance and made some good saves, especially in the second half.”

“He kept us in the game and we must give him credit.”

Australia remain undefeated in the tournament after a 4-0 win over India and a battling 1-1 draw with South Korea earlier in the group stage, and Tuesday’s result means Osieck’s side will face the runners-up from Group D in the quarter finals, with either Iraq or North Korea the likely opponents.

“It was our target to go to the quarter-finals and I’m glad to achieve the target,” Osieck said.

“We have seen in other games that there are quality teams and I’m happy to be still in the competition.”

“All the teams are good and whoever we are going to play against, the match is going to be tough.”

“It doesn’t matter who we play because there is great deal of quality in the group but we must be ready and play our own game.”

Australia do have some personnel issues, with Jason Culina, Luke Wilkshire and David Carney all missing from Tuesday’ match due to injury, while Brett Emerton picked up his second yellow card of the tournament against Bahrain and will miss the quarter-final.

Bahrain coach Salman Sharida was pleased with his side’s performance despite the loss, and said they deserved more out of the match.

“We have had a good performance tonight and we were the better side as we controlled the game and we were organised,” Sharida said.

“We got into the Australian area a lot but we missed a lot of chances. Missing chances in such a game is not acceptable as we wanted to get the three points but we played against an experienced side who have a lot of good players.”

“Australia and Korea Republic are strong teams and they are in a good position in Asian football.”

“We have had some difficult situations in the team but the players showed a good performance in the matches that we had.”