Graham Arnold

Some players on the Tuesday, they had to play on the Wednesday night against Saudi.

Gosh.

We then played Indonesia on the Saturday night.

And we beat them.

Saudi had six days off, seven days off, and then we had to play Saudi two days, three days after our game on the Saturday against Indonesia.

Now, in the game, 0-0 against Saudi, I was a little bit frustrated because I wanted our players to go out and go for it.

And when I say that, be on the front foot because I felt that Saudi, all the pressure was on their shoulders.

They were playing at home.

All the expectations were Saudi was going to win.

And the way we played the last 20 minutes, I wanted us to play the first 70.

And that was in their faces for 90 minutes, not giving them any time and to be aggressive.

And we could have actually won the game in the last 10 minutes.

We missed a couple of chances.

But then, obviously, it's a learning curve.

So the boys had the opportunity to learn from that, but we got through the next phase against UAE.

Yes.

I had five of our best players out, injured, four, one suspended.

And I have to be honest, that's probably the most stressed I've been for a game with Iraq because I thought this one's going to be real tough.

What I was gobsmacked about was the stadium was only half full.

It wasn't packed out in Abu Dhabi.