I am proud of the players’ performance despite a draw with Iraq

Juan Antonio Betzi, the coach of the Kuwait national football team, expressed his pride in the performance of his players, despite wasting a victory that was in front of its host, Iraq.

The Kuwaiti national team was excessively two goals, to fall into the trap of 2/2 draw with the Iraqi team, yesterday, Thursday, at Basra International Stadium, in the seventh round of the second group competitions in the third round of the Asian qualifiers – the road to the 2026 World Cup.

The Kuwaiti team advanced two goals by Youssef Nasser in the 39th and 70th minutes, respectively, before Iraq returned with two goals late by Akam Hashem and Ibrahim Bish in the third and 11 minutes of the time calculated instead of lost for the second half, respectively.

South Korea maintained the top of the group ranking with 15 points from seven games, compared to 12 points for Jordan and Iraq, 7 for Oman, 5 for Kuwait, and 3 for Palestine.

Betzi said after the match: “The confrontation was difficult and in it a great competition between the two teams as we expected, but I am very proud of the players of my team who made a great effort regardless of the result … I was enjoying during the meeting to perform my team.”

And he added: “The tie in the last seconds is a painful result, but we are still optimistic and adhered to hope, and now we must prepare well for the next match after five days, and we will be centered in it.”

“We must work to recover the players before the next match, and there are some players who suffer from injuries, and other players who have warnings, but we have sufficient days to recover the players,” he said in his statements, which were reported by the official website of the Asian Football Confederation.

It is noteworthy that the first two teams from each group qualify directly to the 2026 World Cup Finals, while the two teams, who hold the third and fourth places in order to contest the fourth round to compete for two cards to the World Cup and a card to the global attaché.