Bucker: Lebanon deserve better

Coach Theo Bucker believes Lebanon have dominated their opening two final round 2014 World Cup qualifiers with little reward.

The Cedars have just one point after drawing 1-1 with Uzbekistan in Friday’s qualifier in Beirut, after losing 1-0 at home to Qatar last Sunday.

Speaking after the draw, where Ali Al Saadi equalised Djasur Khasanov’s 12th-minute goal, Bucker lamented his side’s failure to convert their domination into victories.

“We played well. It is a shame that we were the better side in the first match against Qatar and tonight, and yet we failed to win,” Bucker said.

“We showed a good performance in the two matches, but we were not lucky… Al Saadi’s goal was a saviour for us.”

Several local journalists criticised the German for his side’s failure to win, but Bucker added he had been left disappointed by his foreign-based legion.

“I’m really disappointed with the performance of some players, especially the foreign-based players as their performance has dropped a lot in the recent matches,” he said.

Uzbekistan boss Mirjalol Qosimov was impressed by Lebanon after the interval.

“Lebanon were good, especially in the second half, and they gave us a hard time especially in defence where they managed to clear all the chances that we had in the game,” he said.

“We produced a good performance and we were close to winning but we were unsuccessful with the chances that we had, especially our strikers who didn’t know how to score.”