Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong believes his team’s shock 2-0 win over former Asian champions Saudi Arabia in Jakarta on Tuesday gives them a real chance of reaching the 2026 World Cup.
Marselino Ferdinan struck twice against the Herve Renard-coached Saudis to secure his country’s first win in the third phase of the continent’s qualifiers, boosting their hopes of an appearance at the finals in North America.
“The players have got a huge amount of confidence from this victory,” said former South Korea coach Shin.
“Before we started this journey in the third round of the World Cup qualifiers I had a goal to finish third or fourth in the table.
“We’ve got two more matches at home and I believe we can reach our goal. From today’s match the players are motivated to go higher and higher.”
Indonesia are attempting to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1938, when the country - then known as the Dutch East Indies - secured their only appearance at the finals.
The win lifted Indonesia off the bottom of Group C and into third place after six matches.
Japan lead the standings with 16 points, nine ahead of Australia with Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and China all a point further behind.
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The first two in the group qualify automatically for the World Cup while the nations in third and fourth advance to a further round of preliminaries where they will battle for the last two of Asia’s eight guaranteed berths.
Defeat in Jakarta was another blow for the Saudis in their second game since Renard returned to replace Roberto Mancini last month.
Mancini’s reign ended after a 0-0 draw with Bahrain in October but the team have continued to struggle, failing to score against Australia on Thursday before their defeat to Indonesia.
“It’s a reality that we haven’t been able to score in our last two matches,” said Renard. “Indonesia played really well and showed they have real quality.
“What is clear now is that Japan are out in front on their own and everyone else will fight for second spot. We will try our best to finish second, today is just one game but hopefully we can reach our target.”
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