Al Ain: Graham Arnold paid tribute to goalkeeper Maty Ryan after the Brighton & Hove Albion shot-stopper earned the defending champions a place in the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 with a pair of penalty saves in their shootout win over Uzbekistan on Monday evening.



Ryan kept out spot-kicks from Islom Tukhtakhujaev and Dostonbek Khamdamov as Australia won the shootout 4-2 following a goalless draw at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium to set up a last eight meeting with hosts the United Arab Emirates.

Arnold was quick to praise the 26-year-old, who was instrumental in Australia’s title win on home soil four years ago and is proving to be just as vital to his team’s hopes at the current tournament.



“Maty probably had a lot of energy for the penalty shootout because I think they only had one shot on goal in the whole 120 minutes, but that shows why he’s in the Premier League and that’s why he’s such a high class goalkeeper,” said Arnold.

“His two saves in the shootout showed what a top goalkeeper he is. Maty does a lot of homework himself and when Maty goes into a game he ticks all boxes and he did exceptionally well again tonight with that.”

 


Match Highlights - January 21

Australia were made to work for their win, with Uzbekistan’s determined defending keeping the Socceroos at bay throughout the 90 minutes of normal time plus the added 30 minutes tagged on prior to the penalty shootout.

But the champions eventually prevailed despite being unable to unlock Hector Cuper’s well-drilled back line.

“It was a very tough game and you’ve got to give credit to Uzbekistan, who fought hard and long in the game and made it very difficult for us to break them down by defending so deep,” said Arnold.

“I have to say I didn’t really expect that they would defend so deep, they had a lot of numbers behind the ball. But our boys stuck to their guns and worked extremely hard.

"I was so impressed with this new team of ours that they showed great calmness under that type of pressure and we move forward.”

Cuper put aside his disappointment at not progressing to the last eight to praise his team’s performance and believes their showing at the AFC Asian Cup bodes well for the future.

“Now it’s really difficult to find the words to say anything about the game, but we tried to do our best on the pitch and I can say that I’m really proud of my guys and my team,” he said. “They did everything possible on the pitch and there’s no one to blame."

“I’m not going to look for any excuses. The only thing I didn’t like was the first 15, 20 minutes of the second half because the team seemed a bit passive. We tried to win, even though we faced a very good opponent, one of the best Asian teams. I’m generally content with the game.

“I liked the discipline my team showed and they tried to do the best they could. We had a lot of expectations from this tournament but unfortunately we have to finish now. With penalties you cannot predict what will happen, it’s like a lottery, but this is football and we just need to accept everything.”


Source: the-afc.com