"We were better"- Bahrain boss

Goal.com October 9 Bahrain coach Luka Peruzovic was pleased with his team's performance in drawing 1-1 with Uzbekistan in the first leg of the Asian Zone World Cup play-off. A month ago Bahrain were defeated 1-0 in Tashkent but due to a refereeing error, FIFA ordered the game replayed and the Croation-born Belgian had more to smile about than his Central Asian counterpart. "Uzbekistan pushed harder in the second half, but in general, I think we were the better side overall and we have achieved a better result than previous time. If I'm asked to name the best player today, I would say it was all the Bahraini team as we all played as one player." The former coach of Al-Ittihad introduced star striker A'laa Hubail with ten minutes remaining, the first action that the joint top scorer of the 2004 Asian Cup had seen since injuring his knee eight months ago. "Hubail was on for only about 15 minutes but his condition is very good and he was able to show that he is very useful", Peruzovic said but didn't reveal if the prolific striker will play a bigger part in the second leg on Wednesday in Manama. "I can not say if Hubail is going to play or not to play in the return leg, let alone starting him from the first minutes. Players' conditions change everyday in football so I will better answer this question one hour before the second match." After seeing his team relinquish a 17th minute lead just two minutes later, Peruzovic is still confident of leading the tiny Gulf State to the play-off game with CONCAFAF's fourth-placed team in November. "… My prediction is that we will qualify to the next stage. I want my team to qualify."