Muscat: All eyes will be on defending champions Oman today as the Red Warriors meet Bahrain in their opening match of Gulf Cup tournament in Doha today.
Coach Erwin Koeman’s boys go into the tournament high on confidence. “We’re ready and we have trained well. We have done the necessary work in the past days of this tournament, and our last training was this morning and we have high expectations for defending the title,” Koeman told reporters in Doha on Tuesday.
“Winning the tournament depends on several factors, including luck, but we will try to focus on the Bahrain game first and then talk about other things.”
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Under Koeman, Oman have won four out of five matches, their only loss coming against Qatar in the Asian Cup qualifiers.
Their recent good form has further added to the expectations in Oman but Koeman played down any talks of pressure on his players.
“There is no pressure at all, and I am working to raise the pressure if it exists. I trust the players and the strength of the Omani lies in its cohesion and I am happy here to defend the title and my first goal is to get to the semi-finals in this version,” he said.
