Dalic admits Saudi Arabia deserved Gulf Cup final victory over UAE

Zlatko Dalic said Saudi Arabia fully deserved to win the Gulf Cup after defeating the United Arab Emirates 2-0 in the final of the 27th edition of the tournament.

Saudi Arabia secured the title in front of their home supporters at Al-Inma Stadium in Jeddah on Tuesday, ending a 23-year wait for the Gulf Cup. Their previous triumph came in 2003.

The UAE’s Croatian manager congratulated the winners after the match and acknowledged that his team had been beaten by a stronger performance.

“I congratulate the Saudi national team. They deserved to win the title,” Dalic said at his post-match news conference, in comments reported by Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

“We faced a very strong team that did not make mistakes, and they deserved to win the final.”

Saudi Arabia took control by scoring twice early in the match. The UAE were also awarded a penalty but were unable to convert the opportunity, while Dalic felt his side failed to recover after a difficult opening spell.

“Playing in front of the Saudi supporters created a lot of pressure for us,” he said. “We made mistakes at the start of the match that should not happen in games like this. Individual errors were the main reason for our defeat today.”

Dalic added: “We conceded two early goals and had a chance to score from a penalty. After the first 20 minutes, we did not return to the match in the way we needed to.

“We should have produced a better performance and applied more pressure.”

The defeat ended the UAE’s hopes of reclaiming the Gulf Cup, a trophy they have not won since 2013.

Despite the final result, Dalic said he was broadly satisfied with the UAE’s campaign and believed the team could use the tournament to improve before its next commitments.

“We had a good tournament, and overall I am satisfied with what we produced,” he said. “Apart from today’s match, we will learn from this tournament, build on the positives and address the negatives.

“We will work to develop Emirati football and prepare for the upcoming challenges.”

Saudi Arabia’s victory gave them their first Gulf Cup title since 2003, while the UAE’s wait for another championship continues.