Graham Arnold

So the atmosphere was, and there was quite a few Iraqis there, so the atmosphere wasn't really lopsided and that it would really benefit the UAE team.

But the first half we went up 1-0.

We should have been up 3-0.

And then they scored just before halftime, 3-1.

But what surprised me again was second half, the UAE didn't come out and try to really damage us.

Because what I was worried about was going back to Basra, potentially being 3-1 down or 3-0 down or 2-0 down, and then having to try and play that catch-up game back in Basra with the pressure on the players.

As it was, we held on well.

We defended well.

and we had a little bit of luck there where UAE missed a very good chance, and we got through that game 1-1.

So I was very happy to get out of there with that result.

And probably another 25,000 people outside the stadium watching it on a big screen outside the stadium.

Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong,

Went wrong two days before the game.

What happened?

When we got back to Bashar in Iraq, we got back to the hotel.

Electricity went out in the hotel for three hours.

So we couldn't do any work.

The players couldn't do anything.

So they're sitting outside of the hotel in beanbags waiting for the electricity.

We then get on the bus to go to training.