Kuala Lumpur, January 09 (QNA) - The Omani national team is aiming to reach the furthest possible point in the AFC Asian Cup, which will be held in Qatar from Jan. 12 to Feb. 10.

The team, which is in Group F alongside Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Kyrgyzstan, is looking forward to continuing its momentum in the upcoming edition after the team managed for the first time in its history to surpass the group stage in the previous edition in 2019.

The Omani team has never qualified for the World Cup before, but it reached the Asian Cup four times and has won the Gulf Cup title twice in 2009 and 2017.

During its run in the Asian Cup, the team played 13 matches in total, winning three, drawing one and losing seven, with a total of ten goals scored.

The 2019 edition of the AFC Asian Cup, held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), marked the most notable participation of the Oman national team when the team managed to advance to the knockout stage where it then lost to Iran.

Croatian Branko Ivankovic has been coaching the Omani team since 2020 after he succeeded Dutch Erwin Koeman.

Ivankovic, who previously supervised the training of the Iranian national team in 2002 and led it to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, aspires to achieve the best results in the upcoming edition of the AFC Asian Cup.

The 65-year-old coach also trained Saudi Arabia's clubs Al Ettifaq and Al Ahli, the UAE's Al Wahda, and Iran's Persepolis. (QNA)