Despite having the advantage of only needing a win against Kyrgyzstan to qualify for the next round, Oman were a big disappointment. They opened the scoring in the 8th minute but retreated to defend too early. As a result, in the 80th minute, Kojo leveled the score for the Central Asian team.
Coach Branko Ivankovic was fired immediately after Oman was eliminated from the 2023 Asian Cup (Photo: Getty).
With this result, Oman stopped right from the group stage of the 2023 Asian Cup when it could not enter the group of 4/6 third-placed teams with the best results. Oman's elimination right from the group stage brought great disappointment to the country's fans.
Shortly after, the Oman Football Federation announced the dismissal of coach Branko Ivankovic. The agency issued a statement: "The Oman Football Federation announces the departure of coach Branko Ivankovic. We do not want to extend his contract after the end of the 2023 Asian Cup.
The Oman Football Federation would like to thank coach Branko Ivankovic for his time and contribution to the Oman national team. We wish him success in the future."
This was the outcome that the Croatian coach had anticipated. In this tournament, the West Asian team had an extremely disappointing performance. Not only were they poor in defense, but their offense also played poorly. After losing to Saudi Arabia, Oman could not win against two weaker teams, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand.
Oman (white shirt) disappointed against Kyrgyzstan (Photo: Reuters).
Oman's performance at the 2023 Asian Cup was a far cry from that in the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, where they defeated Vietnam (two matches), China and Japan.
After firing coach Branko Ivankovic, the Oman Football Federation is urgently looking for a new coach to prepare for the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup taking place in March.
After Oman, it is likely that the Chinese team will fire coach Aleksandar Jankovic. According to Chinese media, the Chinese Football Federation is about to officially announce the dismissal of the Serbian coach. He himself knew he would lose his job so he returned to Serbia, instead of returning to China like the players.
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