Lebanon coach Emile Rustom is still hopeful but his players failed him again.
Their Nehru Cup campaign hanging in the balance, the West Asian nation was expected to put up a fighting show, but it didn't seem to have learnt from the lesson it got against Sri Lanka three days back and hence the 1-1 draw against Kyrgyzstan at the Ambedkar Stadium on Tuesday was par for the course.
Lebanon, who started the tournament on a rousing note, beating India 1-0, came back strongly after a goal down early in the second half but failed to collect the full points against a determined Kyrgyzstan side.
Zemlianuhin Anton put the Kyrgys ahead after the change of ends --- he positioned himself perfectly to make use of Amirov Ildar's strike. But Abbas Ahmed Atwi neutralised the lead with a 56th minute strike for Lebanon.
The result meant Kyrgyzstan are out of the tournament having collected just one point from three matches, but Lebanon too don't find themselves in a very favourable position.
They play their last match against tournaments favourites Syria on August 27. “Not everything is lost for us yet. We have a match against Syria and all depends on the outcome of that match,” said Rustom.
‘Will give our best against Syria’
{{/usCountry}}‘Will give our best against Syria’
{{/usCountry}}The draw notwithstanding, Rustom said his boys will come up with a much-improved show when they take on Syria in a must-win match on Thursday.
“The humidity, fasting of the players due to Ramadan and a red card to our center forward in the last match; all these have contributed to our team's poor performance,” Rustam said after the match. “I know it will be difficult for us to make it to the title-clash. We have to try and win the match against Syria and see what happens after that.“