Italy’s Roberto Manchini, head coach of the Saudi team, said the loss to Jordan in the final round of the combined Asian qualifiers was his first, explaining that South Korea’s Asian Cup game was not a loss as described.
The Saudi national team suffered a first loss in their qualifying campaign after four wins and a single draw, but the loss lost the Green Group G lead and went down to Level 3 before the decisive round draw of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Manchini spoke at the post-match press conference: we deserved to win and we were unlucky.
He added: “We lost only today, the Korea game is not a loss, and the rest of the failures were initially and through friendly games, and today we had many opportunities.
On the course of the game, he said: “We could have doubled the result, but the players didn’t agree in front of goal, and after the equaliser things changed.
Manchini promised more work: Prepare the Saudi fans to work, see that we have a great team and scored 11 goals, and we did not lose qualification for the World Cup.
Concluding the conversation: We have qualified for the next stage and this is most important, true, we are the third level, but the Saudi team has qualified for the previous World Cup and is the third level.
