Tunisia’s Jaziri Seifeddine celebrates with team-mates after scoring against the United Arab Emirates at Al Thumama Stadium, on Monday.
Doha: FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021 leading scorer and Tunisian forward Seifeddine Jaziri said the Carthage Eagles did enough to qualify for the competition’s quarter-finals after a nervy win over the United Arab Emirates last Monday.
The victory ensured the North Africans qualified as group leaders, avoiding hosts Qatar in the quarter-finals. The Eagles will, however face an Omani side, who cruised past Bahrain 3-0 in their last group match.
“We achieved an important and deserved victory,” Jaziri, who scored the winner for his side after Youssef Msakni’s brilliant run, said. “I think we played at a good level in the match, especially in the first half, when we scored a goal. We could have added more goals if we had taken some of our opportunities.”
Earlier in the tournament, Jaziri had attributed the team’s strength to a strong bond between the old and young players. “We have a very good group of players. The strong bond we have is the secret to our success. Young players respect older ones, and that respect is reciprocated. The atmosphere on the pitch is wonderful, and we hope it continues like that and that we continue to win,” he told FIFA.com.
The team needed that bond after suffering a shock loss to Syria. Ranked 29th in the FIFA rankings, the Eagles know they’ll have to band together and be at their best to have any shot against Oman at the Education City Stadium on Friday.
“The important thing for us was to get three points that put us in first place in the group, and we are happy because we made the Tunisian fans happy.
“We hope in the next round to succeed in winning the qualification ticket and progressing more in the tournament. We promise to make a greater effort to please the Tunisian fans. The experience from the group matches will help us as we work to be at our best level,” the Zamalek of Egypt striker added.
