FOOTBALL – Bahrain head coach Dragan Talajic expressed his deep regret following the senior men’s football national team’s heavy 1-5 defeat against Algeria on Saturday, which knocked them out of further contention in the Fifa Arab Cup 2025, currently being held in Doha, Qatar.
Talajic took full responsibility for the loss and admitted that he should have prepared his squad to be “a little bit stronger mentally”.
The Croatian tactician added that he and his technical staff will fully analyse what went wrong and vowed that “we will learn something from this”.
“Algeria played a very good game – they made the most of all our mistakes; congratulations to them and I wish them good luck,” Talajic said during his post-game Press conference.
“My players gave everything they could. The situation in the game was always changing, especially in the first half. They did the best they can, and all the responsibility comes from my side, not from them.
“I think my biggest mistake was not preparing my team to be a little bit stronger mentally. We have quality, we know how to play football, but mental things, we need to improve a little bit more.
“I am sorry for my boys and I am sorry for all Bahraini people who are supporting us. What happened, happened. We have to make a good analysis of why this happened. The first mistakes are coming from me. I always say I will always be in front of my boys, I will protect them all the time.
“Everything is difficult for me tonight – the match result, being out of the competition, and disappointing all my people in Bahrain with this bad result.”
Talajic rued Bahrain’s disallowed goal scored by Abdulla Al Khalasi in the eighth minute, which would have put them ahead and possibly changed the trajectory of the contest.
“We were unlucky after we scored to make it 1-0, but it was offside, and after that, 1-0 for Algeria and we came back 1-1, but then very fast we conceded a second goal,” he recalled.
“Algeria showed a much more compact line especially after 1-1. It is not a surprise for us because we knew before the game what are the most powerful things for the Algerian national team.
“Algeria played beautifully after the second goal, and after giving up a penalty in the last second of the first half, it became very difficult for us to come back.
“Inshaallah, we will learn something from this.” The result was the nationals’ second loss in as many fixtures in Group D.
They remained in last place with zero points and are out of contention for a berth in the knockouts.
Bahrain complete their Fifa Arab Cup campaign tomorrow when they take on Sudan at Education City Stadium in the Qatari capital.
The game is scheduled for an 8pm kick-off and it will be a no-bearing affair, as the Sudanese have also suffered an early exit.
Algeria and table-toppers Iraq, both of whom are already through to the quarter-finals, clash at Khalifa International Stadium at the same time tomorrow evening for Group D supremacy.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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