LONDON: Bernd Stange has paid the price for Syria’s awful start to the Asian Cup with his job as the German was axed before the end of the group stage.
The Syrians went into the tournament strongly fancied to do well. They only narrowly missed out on qualification for last year’s World Cup — losing in the continental playoff to Australia — and had high hopes of success in the UAE.
But a drab and very underwhelming 0-0 against Palestine in their Group B opener and a shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of Jordan convinced the Syrian Football Association they had to take action before the last group clash against the Socceroos.
The Syrian FA issued a statement hours after the loss to their neighbors, stating Stange has been replaced by former coach Ayman Hakeem for the remainder of the tournament. However, in a later update, former head coach Fajr Ibrahim was announced as the replacement.
Hakeem will be tasked with picking up a win that could reignite the country’s AFC Asian Cup campaign.
“Coaches are always responsible for the performance of the team,” said Stange just hours before he was fired.
“We are one team and we win and we lose together.”
“There is not one person or a player who had a bad day. We win and we lose together and we have to lift up our team.
“We are disappointed extremely because we wanted to do something in this tournament, we wanted to go for the first time in history to the next round, Syria never achieved that and we need results and today was a disappointment.
“I will never ever blame one player or a group of players for something like this. Of course, the coach is responsible.”
The German is the second coach to be issued with his marching orders at the Asian Cup following Thailand’s decision to sack Milovan Rajevac following their 4-1 defeat to India.
Syria sack Bernd Stange after Jordan defeat
Syria sack Bernd Stange after Jordan defeat
- Syria lost 2-0 to Jordan on Thursday having drawn with Palestine in their Group B opener.
- German is the second coach to be axed at the Asian Cup before the end of the group stage.
Liverpool’s Slot says football must do more after Vinicius racism allegation
- The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed
Liverpool manager Arne Slot says more needs to be done to avoid racism in football following allegations by Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr that he was subjected to racist abuse from Benfica’s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni.
Real’s 1-0 Champions League playoff first-leg win at Benfica on Tuesday was overshadowed by Vinicius accusing Prestianni of directing a racist slur at him, a charge denied by the Portuguese club, the player and their manager Jose Mourinho.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident, which led to the game being halted for 11 minutes under FIFA’s anti-racism protocol.
“In general you can never do enough, you can always do more to make sure this (racism in football) never happens again,” Slot told reporters ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League visit to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
“We have to try as a football community to do more than society does. That’s maybe not so difficult, by the way. Protocol was followed in the game, that’s the first step,” he said on Thursday.
“I would hope my players would act in a similar way — immediately address it, and the referee acts in a similar way.”
Regarding the Forest game, Slot expects a different set-up under the Midlands club’s new manager Vitor Pereira compared to the meeting in November when Liverpool lost 3-0 at Anfield.
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Pereira was appointed last Sunday to replace the sacked Sean Dyche.
“We only have tonight (Thursday) to see if this new manager changes personnel,” Slot said, referring to Forest’s first game under Pereira at Fenerbahce in a Europa League playoff tie.
“The good thing is they have that game, and the manager was in the Premier League last season.”
The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed.
Slot said his side have improved over the past few months, with Liverpool sixth in the table on 42 points from 26 games.
“We have improved compared to three, four months ago. We are in a much better place than months ago,” the 47-year-old added.
“There are more reasons, but the most simple two are how fit we are and that we’re much better at set-pieces at the moment.”
Forest are languishing in 17th spot, one place and three points above West Ham United in the relegation zone.
