BANGKOK, June 10: Regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia have sacked Brazilian coach Helios dos Anjos, despite his team being on the verge of reaching the next round of World Cup qualifiers.

Dos Anjos was originally told he would be axed if he failed to steer the Saudis to the 2010 World Cup but failed to live up to the expectations of Saudi Prince Sultan bin Fahad, the country’s football federation president, who was unimpressed by their 2-1 win over Lebanon on Saturday.

“The decision was made after Saturday’s match that he (Dos Anjos) will no longer be in charge,” a Saudi football federation official said on Monday.

Under Dos Anjos, Saudi Arabia were losing finalists at last year’s Asian Cup and had won all but one of their World Cup qualifiers so far.

The three-time Asian champions need only one point from their remaining two matches to advance to round four.

Local coach Nasser Al Johar will take over for the rest of the qualifiers. He will be their 19th coach since 1994.—Reuters