Chief coach Qahtan Chitheer feels his team's stunning show to earn a maiden knock-out berth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup will unite people back home in war-torn Iraq
Chief coach Qahtan Chitheer feels his team's stunning show to earn a maiden knock-out berth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup will unite people back home in war-torn Iraq. Continuing the dream run in their second U-17 World Cup appearance, the Lions of Mesopotamia finished second behind England from a 'group of death' to set up a Last-16 clash against Mali. "
Chief coach Qahtan Chitheer
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Nobody expected us to qualify. This was a tough group but we succeeded to be second with teams like Mexico and Chile," Chitheer said. "This will surely unite our people. We will forget today's result and start afresh. We will study the team of Mali and do our best to go further," the coach added.
Iraq will be without their star striker Mohammed Dawood. In his absence, regular captain Saif Khalid is likely to start after missing their group matches because of a niggle. "We played the first match without him (Saif) because he had a little injury. Maybe, we will need him in the next match," Chitheer said. "We will do the recovery and correct our mistakes of earlier matches."
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