Timur Kapadze
Doha, Qatar: As delighted as Timur Kapadze was that his side had achieved their target of qualifying for the Olympic Games for the time, the head coach stressed that he would only truly be satisfied if Uzbekistan lift the AFC U23 Asian Cup trophy a second time.
The Central Asian side were simply too strong for Indonesia in their Qatar 2024 semi-final on Monday, with Khusain Norchaev giving them the lead and Pratama Arhan turning the ball into his own net to send Uzbekistan into their third final in four editions.
Up next are Japan on Friday, with both teams bidding to become the first side to lift the coveted trophy for a second time.
“I dedicate this victory to our President, our people and our supporters,” said Kapadze. “The game was very tough but we must now prepare well because there’s one more game.
“We’ve achieved our first target but now, we must aim to achieve the second target of bringing home the cup.”
Meanwhile, Go Oiwa refused to rest on his laurels after steering his Japan team into the final on Monday as a 2-0 win over Iraq also guaranteed his nation an eighth consecutive appearance at the Olympic Games.
Japan joined Uzbekistan in securing one of the three spots at the Paris Games with a victory that was delivered by first half goals from Mao Hosoya and Ryotaro Araki, and Oiwa stressed he has already shifted his focus to Friday’s decider against Timur Kapadze’s team.
“I’m proud of my players, they had done so well but my mind has already moved onto the final and we’ll start preparing for that,” said Oiwa.
“In the first half our team did a great job but unfortunately in the second half we needed to improve the players’ positioning so hopefully we can do that better.”
“In defence we did quite a good job, especially the goalkeeper and the centre-backs, they did a good job,” said the former Kashima Antlers coach.
“On the other side with our ball positioning I think we had fewer options to have the ball possession. We were a little bit defensive. At half time I spoke with the players to try to correct this kind of issue and in the next match we need to improve this.”
