(MENAFN- The Peninsula) BY RIZWAN REHMAT | The Peninsula KUWAIT CITY: Defending champions Qatar have planned an all-out assaultwhen they take on Bahrain in their third and final Group B clash atthe Gulf Cup on Friday, coach Felix Sanchez declared on Thursday. A win on Friday will take Qatar into the semi-finals of the eight-teamtournament though a draw will be enough to secure Bahrain theirlast-four berth. In their two matches, three-time Gulf Cup champions Qatar have beatenYemen 4-0 but Al Anabi lost to Iraq 2-1 after a feisty battle onTuesday. Bahrain, coached by Miroslav Soukup, drew with Iraq 1-1 in theiropening game but edged Yemen 1-0 in their second clash to be one pointahead of the 2014 Gulf Cup champions. Qatar coach Sanchez has urged his players to go for a winning performance. I am 100 percent sure we will play an aggressive game tomorrow andget the result we are looking for. We have to go for the win, Sanchezsaid on Thursday. The team is motivated to face the final (game of the preliminary stage), the Spaniard added. We are motivated to play well and to get the result we need, Sanchezsaid defiantly. 'In think so far the team is in a positive frame ofmind, the Qatar coach said. Sanchez said Qatar's 2-1 loss against Iraq had many positives for hisyoung side. The team showed great personality in the match against Iraq. They(the players) tried to perform to the best of their ability. We couldnot win in the second game but I know they tried hard. They gave theirbest on the pitch. The team is fit and hopefully we will do betteragainst Bahrain, Sanchez said. The Qatar coach - who has coached most of the U-23 players in thenational squad - said his team still has a day to rest and recover forthe crunch match at Kuwait Sports Club Stadium. In think it is a short tournament. so many matches are played withina short period of time. Only thing we can do is recover as fast aspossible after every game. Physically we still have one more day torest and recover before we take on Bahrain, Sanchez said. Sanchez said the Iraq clash was a battle that tested his team to the fullest.
I think in the game against Iraq, we faced a situation where the teamplayed a high level of football which was good. We needed to playdirect but we could not. It was difficult to keep the ball inpossession, especially when we reached the last stretch (of the secondhalf), Sanchez said. They had the counterattacks and sometimes the game was broken for ussince they dominated. We needed to take risks to get a point and wetried to do that. It was difficult for us to have the control of thematch even though we tried to do it. Unfortunately we couldn't get theresult though we almost managed to score the goal in the end, hesaid. Bahrain coach Soukup said Qatar clash would be a big battle. We respect their quality because they are the 2014 Gulf Cupchampions. They have very good players and don't forget we saw theirgame against Iraq (on Tuesday). The quality was evident on both sides.
Qatar had a chance to win the match. They scored first, Soukup saidon Thursday. Compared to Qatar, our situation is still positive since we have onemore point than Qatar. We also have a chance to qualify for thesemi-finals since we want to repeat Iraq performance we had in thefirst match of the tournament. We know a lot about Qatar and clearly we don't want to discuss thosethings here in the press conference. We discuss those things in theteam meetings. We want to do a good job. It is 0-0 for both teams. Like I said, we want to repeat the performance we had against Iraq,Soukup added. When asked about team tactics or player changes, Soukup dismissed thequestion with a smile. Any changes to the team? (smiles) I can't speak of our line-upbecause that would be of advantage for Qatar. We have no injuryissues. That much I can say. All our attackers can score. We also knowthe quality of our opponents. Qatar vs Iraq was about quality ofdefenders, Soukup said. Soukup said his team won't play a for a draw, a result that would takethem to the last-four stage of the tournament. I don't think we will play for a draw. I am a bad coach because Ican't plan for a draw. I want to win matches. I cannot tell players toplay for a draw. That would be incorrect from my side. My motivationshould be to win. If we think like that before a game then I think wewill lose. I have told my players not to play for a draw, Soukupsaid. The match will begin at 6:30pm on Friday. The same day Iraq will playbottom-placed Yemen in another Group B clash.
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