UAE and Syria share point in Damascus

Ziad Chabo gave the home side the lead after just two minutes before Ismail Matar equalised early in the second half.

It was a second consecutive draw for Syria having already held Iran but Ibrahim, who unlike counterpart Bruno Metsu did attend the post-match press conference, lamented the fact his side could not collect all three points.

"The draw is like a defeat for us," he said.

"We faced an organised side and UAE were positionally good and had good possession but did not have any chances.

"Our team produce a disciplined performance, the players played according to the plan we had set out before hand and they marked the UAE players well.

"However, they lost concentration early in the second half and that allowed UAE the chance to score the equaliser.

"We missed two chances in the second half to score the winner and if we had taken one of them, we could have won the match.

"In the second half, we made several substitutions to increase the pressure but despite having several chances, we couldn't score.

"Ibrahim also felt a lack of warm-up games hindered his team's chances, although he did concede they were also feeling the effects of a busy domestic schedule.

"Our preparations before the game wasn't good as we didn't have any friendly matches," he added.

"But our clubs had a heavy schedule with several matches in continental championships and this took its toll on the players.

"However, despite only having two points, Ibrahim insisted it was far too early to write off Syria's chances of making it through to the next stage.

"Despite the draw, we still have a chance to qualify from the group," he said.

"We knew that UAE would be a tough team to beat and we had some problems against them.

"In general, the performance was convincing but the result was not good."