The fourth stage of the Asian Top 12 tournament is all over, the results of each team are different, the domestic fans focus on the national football team and the Vietnam game has formed a contrast, the national football team lost to the Vietnamese team for the first time in nearly 20 years, and the local fans celebrated after the game. However, similar to the situation of the national football team in Group B, the results of the two West Asian teams in Group A are 8 games and 0 wins, which is not satisfactory, and Syria, which is at the bottom of the group and qualifies with the national football team, is more direct, not only the coach is dismissed, but also reorganizes the national football management team, less than 1 day, and Iraq, which is in the same grade as the national football team, has also made adjustments.
In the group stage 8 rounds, Iraq did not win 1 game, but only lost 3 games, 5 draws, and is by far the team with the most draws in Asia, currently ranked second from the bottom of Group A, 15 points away from the second-place South Korean team, and has no direct access to the opportunity, while the 3rd place UAE has 9 points, 4 points higher than Iraq, and the latter has little hope of getting a play-off place with 2 points left. For such results, the Iraqi Football Association is also dissatisfied, and on February 3, it was directly announced that head coach Petrović was dismissed.
In fact, as early as last November, the Iraqi Football Association had fired the previous coach Advocat for poor performance, Petrović took over and led the team to participate in 6 games, the results are still not improving, 3 months and 2 changes of coach, obviously the Iraqi Football Association's decision has not played a substantive effect.
Therefore, the country's Football Association did not rush, but set up a committee composed of a number of experts, retired players, coaches to discuss the team's preparation strategy, this innovative way may bring qualitative changes to the team. Judging from the two coaches' dismissals, the Iraqi Football Association is still very bold in its work, and it is not ambiguous when it is decided.
Of course, Iraq's task is very difficult, especially in the next round, home to direct rivals the United Arab Emirates, if it can win the first time, the point difference with the opponent will be reduced to 1 point, although there is still no initiative, but due to the last round against Syria, which has no hope of qualifying, Iraq is still expected to get a play-off place.