MANAMA, Bahrain: Oscar Cano is going to waste any time. The Qatar
coach was thrilled to see his team beat Yemen in a 2016 AFC U-19 Asian
Cup match on Monday and now he is already kicking preparations for the
team’s next match against Japan on October 20.

“Our focus is on the Japan game. That’s going to be our most important
game in this tournament so far,” Cano said.

On Monday, Qatar beat Yemen 1-0 after Abdulrasheed Umari scored the
only goal of the match in the 83rd minute at Bahrain National Stadium.

Cano applauded Yemen’s resilience in the Group C clash.

“We want to congratulate Yemen. We couldn’t play our usual style of
football and didn’t feel comfortable throughout,” Cano said.

“As the game went by, the only way to win was to be brave and be
aggressive. We knew a single run from one of our players could change
things and that’s what happened,” he said.

“We’ve had lots of bad luck in the past with injuries and also in the
last match against Iran, so perhaps this is football giving some of
the luck back, luck that Yemen didn’t have. The important thing is
we’re still in it going into the last day of matches.”

Yemen coach Mohammed Al Nufiay said: “My team did their best today. We
had the better chances and we were close to winning but we made a few
mistakes.”

He added: “We were full of confidence going into this game and we
tried our best. We changed out gameplan in the second half and tried
hard but it was not to be.”