October 11, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 17, 1427

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LAHORE, Oct 10: Jordan take on Pakistan under a must-win situation while the hosts are nursing the hope of salvaging some pride before the home crowd in the 14th Asia Cup football qualifiers at the Punjab Stadium on Wednesday.

Jordan, with four points must win and are hoping that UAE, the leaders in the group beat Oman in the last match of the qualifiers to pave Jordan’s way into the main round from Group C.

Pakistan had lost all four matches and are at the bottom of the four-team group.

UAE are the leaders of the group with ten points while Oman are runners-up with nine points.

In all, 23 countries are taking part in the qualifiers. They have been divided into six groups with group 'D' comprising only three teams after Lebanon’s withdrawal.

The other groups have four teams, each. Two top teams of each group will qualify for the main round to be hosted jointly by four countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam from July 7 to 29, 2007. The host countries had already qualified for the main round.

"We can't afford defeat and will fight till the end to win against Pakistan. I can't predict victory against Pakistan with any specific margin but even a 1-0 win is enough for us," Jordan coach Jamal Abu Abed said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"We will not take Pakistan as an easy side because they are capable of staging an upset," Jamal said.

The coach said he was expecting a good game against Pakistan.

Commenting on the weather, Jamal remarked, "We are used to playing under all weather conditions, therefore, it is not a problem for us," he said.

He said a win against Pakistan would raise their morale for the next outing against Oman.

He claimed the ground at the Punjab Stadium was small but it would not create any problems for them and their players would adjust to it.

Pakistan's captain, Jaffar Khan, a goalkeeper, said he would go for victory.

Jaffar said though Pakistan had no chance to qualify, his boys were confident of beating Jordan.

"We lost to Jordan (3-0) in the first leg at Amman due to our own mistakes but now the boys will not repeat those to achieve a victory," he said.

He said his team lacked in finishing but denied the impression they also lacked stamina for 90-minute play.

He said Pakistan would try to take advantage of home conditions to win the match.

The past record of Pakistan against Jordan indicates it has slim chances to stage any upset against them under floodlights at Punjab Stadium.

So far Pakistan have played seven matches and lost all. It has conceded 23 goals against scoring only one through Farooq Rehman in World Cup qualifiers in Jordan in 1993.

Jordan beat Pakistan first time 1-0 in Kuala Lumpur in 1988. Four years later, Jordan won 2-0 at Amman. Then in back-to-back World Cup qualifiers-1993, Jordan thrashed Pakistan 3-1 and 5-0.

Jordan continued their domination by winning the Asia Cup qualifiers in 1996 (4-0) and in 2000 (5-0).

Jordan recorded seventh victory 3-0 in February this year in the home leg of the ongoing episode of the qualifiers.

The match will kick-off at 9pm.

Teams:

Jordan: Faisal Ibrahim (captain), Amer Sabbah, Mohammad Alzubi, Ahmad Hayel, Ahmad Abdel Halim, Hasan Mahmoud, Hassouneh Sh.Qasem, Moayad Abu Kheshk, Abdelhadi El Maharmeh, Moayad Salim, Ahmad Ghazi, Loai Elamaireh, Mohammad Khamees, Musab Al Rifae, Khaled Almaltaah, Osama Al Khateeb, Amjad Alshuaibi, Rafat Jaber, Basem Othman, Amer Khalil and Shadi Abu Hashhash.

Pakistan: Jaffar Khan (captain, goalkeeper), Mohammad Shahzad (goalkeeper), Tanveer Ahmed, Mohammad Imran, Samar Ishaq, Naveed Akram, Abbas Ali, Yasir Sabir, Mohammad Irfan, Saeed Ahmed,Mohammad Rasool, Shahid Ahmed, Mohammad Essa, Adeel Ahmed, Shakir Lashri, ImranNiazi, Mubashar Hussain, Ejaz Ahmed, Mohammad Waseem, Imran Hussain.