AFC Asian Cup:
‘Great characters’ took Tajikistan through, head coach Segrt says
AFC – Head coach Petar Segrt applauded the mental resilience of his players after Tajikistan came from behind to defeat Lebanon 2-1 in their AFC Asian Cup Group A tie on Monday.
Victory meant Tajikistan sealed a place in the knockout stage in their debut campaign.
The 56-year-old may have lost his spectacles amidst the joyous scenes after the final whistle but Segrt could see clearly where the match was won against Lebanon.
“It was a fantastic game, a tough game,” said the Croatian. “Don’t forget, two times we got our goals cancelled, it was the right decision but mentally, it can be draining so I’m very proud of my players, they showed great fight.
“Lebanon played well but I thought we would get chances because we could see them tiring, so we just needed to keep attacking. This kind of game, you play for your life.
“I believe in these boys, they have great characters. Tajikistan people are fighters and they will fight until the end.
“Just this morning I spoke to Joachim Low (former Germany manager) and told him this is a wonderful tournament and you can see that in this game.
“For us this is a big dream to qualify for this tournament. Then the dream became to qualify to the knockout stage. Now we dream again.”
Bassel Jradi opened the scoring for Lebanon just after half-time but Kassem El Zein’s red card turned the tide in Tajikistan’s favour with Parvizdzhon Umarbaev netting the equaliser in the 80th minute before Nuriddin Khamrokulov headed in the winner two minutes into stoppage time.