Al Ain: Syria coach Bernd Stange stressed his team must pick up all three points in their Group B meeting with Jordan in Al Ain on Thursday, conceding the Jordanians’ surprise win over Australia in the opening round of matches has thrown the group wide open.



Stange’s team were held 0-0 draw by Palestine after seeing Vital Borkelmans’ side notch up a 1-0 win over the defending champions and the German coach knows his team must pick up a win at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium in the hotly anticipated meeting with their neighbours.







“We are going to try to win this match, as all teams want to win their matches and the situation in our group has been complicated by the win of Jordan against Australia,” he said. “That’s why it’s not so easy to continue. We need points tomorrow and that’s why we will try to do everything.

“We are looking forward to a special match. It’s a derby, because the players know each other for many years. I have two players in my team playing in the Jordan first division and that’s why it will be exciting. Nobody knows the way the Jordan team will play. It’s a question we have to answer. They are going for six points to make everything clear.”

Jordan faced off against Syria at the AFC Asian Cup Finals in Qatar in 2011, with the Jordanians winning the game 2-1 in Doha to advance to the knockout stage of the competition for the second time in the country’s history.

A repeat of that result would effectively seal Jordan’s place in the Round of 16 of this year’s tournament, but Borkelmans knows his team face a significant challenge against a Syrian side that is well known to his players.

“I talked many times about the group we play in, it is a tough group and there are three teams from Arabic countries that play against each other,” said the Belgian.

“The players know more about the Syrian players than I do. They know how they play, where they play. Some are playing in Jordan and I talk to my players about this and give them a lot of briefings about what they have to do on the pitch.”

Borkelmans, who took over as head coach in October having previously worked alongside Marc Wilmots as an assistant coach with his homeland, stressed his team need to be mentally prepared to take on the challenge facing them on Thursday evening.

“It’s very important I make my players ready in the head, physically but also mentally,” he said. “They give me a lot of confidence and good feelings in my body and I give a lot of compliments to my staff.

“They must think positive and talk positive to my players, but I’m happy I can work with these guys. They are amazing to me. I’ve worked a lot of years with big names but I’m happy as a coach I can work with these guys.”


Source: the-afc.com