Littbarski laments early goals

AFC – Saipa coach Pierre Littbarski lamented the concession of two early goals to Kuruvchi (Bunyodkor) on Wednesday which effectively put paid to his side’s hopes of reaching the ACL semi-finals.

The two teams played out a 2-2 draw in Tehran last week but Kuruvchi took control of the tie at MHSK Stadium with Chilean striker Jose Luis Villanueva scoring twice in the first 16 minutes.

Villanueva would go on to complete his hat-trick with Rivaldo and Luizao netting Kuruvchi’s other goals while Saber Mirghorbani managed Saipa’s lone response in a 5-1 rout that sent the Uzbeks through 7-3 on aggregate.

Littbarski was confident about his team’s chances in the build-up to the game but accepted that they had been well beaten by a better side on the day.

“Kuruvchi played very good football today and they fully deserved their win,” said the former West Germany international midfielder.

“They managed to score a couple of early goals which really buried our hopes of winning the tie.

“Yesterday I was confident that our physical condition was better than our opponents but they proved to be stronger than us today.”

With Saipa making a poor start to their domestic league season, the future of the former Yokohama FC and Sydney FC coach is unclear and Littbarski was reluctant to speculate on his position before his team’s return to Iran.

“I don’t know anything about my future,” he said. “We need to go back to Tehran where the club officials will decide my future.

“I’m sure that there were no tactical mistakes made by our side today. Kuruvchi were just better than us and that was the reason for our defeat.

“They are a strong team but we now need to see how they strong they will be in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League.”