Baharain coach upbeat about progression to Asian Cup finals

Bahrain coach Luke Peruzovic believes that his side has a fair chance of reaching the Asian Cup finals in 2007 despite being drawn in perhaps the toughest qualifying group with Australia, Kuwait and Lebanon.

"It's a strong group," said the 53-year-old Belgian.

"It's tough especially as it has Australia who are like a European team playing Asia. The Australians qualified to the World Cup next summer after defeating Uruguay and they have many players playing in Europe and England.

"As for Lebanon I know them because they organized the Asian Cup 2000 and they are going to be difficult because they have some good talent," he said.

"Regarding Kuwait, I saw them in September when they played against Uzbekistan in Tashkent in the last match in Group A of the final round of Asian World Cup qualifiers and I was following them. Maybe in the last two years they are not as before.

"It's a hard group but with two teams qualifying from the group, I think we have a fair chance along with Australia," added Peruzovic.

Peruzovic's main concern for Bahrain's opening fixture against Australia on February 22 will be the availability of his overseas-based players in the build-up to the game in Manama.

"We have 10 professional players in Qatar and two in Kuwait who are our main players with the best quality," he said. "However, we have a problem as their clubs will not release them until five days before the first match.

"I will try to talk to the Bahraini FA to solve this problem and probably ask them to play friendly matches in January or February."

While Peruzovic may lament the late availability of his players for Matchday One, a non-FIFA matchdate, Bahrain football official Abdul Aziz Al Ashraaf believes that it is an opportune time to play the Australians.

"For our first match in Bahrain, Australia may not be at full strength because many of their best players will be busy with their clubs in Europe so it will be a good time for us to play against them," said Al Ashraaf, a member of the Bahrain Football Association's national team committee.

Having seen the national team exceed expectations by reaching the semifinals of the 2004 Asian Cup, Al Ashraf said that the team will be seeking to emulate that achievement in the 2007 tournament.

"Everybody was surprised to see us in that position but although there have been some changes to team since that time, we will be trying to achieve a similar performance in this Asian Cup, " he said.

"We showed that Bahrain did not come to this position by chance when we just missed out on the World Cup after our 1-0 loss to Trinidad and Tobago. Hopefully, we have learned from our mistakes and will try to improve and reach the top four again.

"We are a small country and it has not been easy for us to get to this position. However, we have shown that a team with good players and good motivation can do well."

Source: Xinhua