Jordan can hold their heads up high after delivering an “honourable performance” on their World Cup debut, coach Jamal Sellami said following his side’s 3-1 defeat by Austria in Group J on Tuesday.
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Austria took the lead with their only real moment of quality in the first half when Romano Schmid curled into the top corner, but Jordan hit back after the break when Ali Olwan pulled them level.
Yazan Al Arab’s own goal restored Austria’s advantage and though Jordan poured forward in search of a second, substitute Marko Arnautovic’s penalty deep into added time finally ended their resistance.
The result leaves Jordan third in their group on goal difference above Algeria, who lost 3-0 to Argentina on Tuesday.
Sellami said the final score flattered Austria and did not do justice to his side’s endeavour.
“I think that the result doesn’t reflect the effort made by the Jordanian team, but personally I’m very happy and proud of their performance,” Sellami told reporters.
Jordan are renowned for their ability on the counter, but were particularly impressive with the way they attacked Austria, even when the score was 1-1.
“No one was expecting us to be that bold, that proactive and to be that capable of benefiting from the available opportunities,” Sellami said.
Ultimately, the difference between the two sides was the quality at Austria’s disposal, including from the bench in the form of record scorer Arnautovic.
“We’ve not been able to win against Austria because it has players at Real Madrid (David Alaba) and Bayern Munich (Konrad Laimer),” Sellami added.
He also bemoaned the loss of forward Yazan Al-Naimat to a knee injury in December.
“If Naimat was with us today, the result would’ve been different,” Sellami said.
Meanwhile, Austria coach Ralf Rangnick saluted the quality of the World Cup’s debutants after his team rode their luck.
Austria were at times exposed by a bold Jordan side playing their first World Cup game and, despite going into the contest as favourites, only wrapped up victory with substitute Marko Arnautovic’s penalty in the 12th minute of second-half stoppage time.
Expectations for Austria had been raised by an impressive performance at Euro 2024 but they may be tempered by Tuesday’s display, especially ahead of a game against Group J leaders Argentina, who beat Algeria 3-0.
Rangnick, however, credited Jordan for keeping his side in check.
“I think it’s due to the opponent,” the coach said when asked why Austria struggled.
“Jordan did a fantastic job throughout the match. We expected a difficult opponent, we knew that they were going to be anything but easy, but today they displayed a very brave kind of football. They exceeded my expectations.
“I know that some of you thought that we would be the favourite in this match, but we were definitely not.”
Source: Khaleej Times