Hector Cuper still confident in White Wolves' mood ahead of Australia clash despite defeat to Japan

Yoshinori Muto and Tsukasa Shiotani scored for Japan after Eldor Shomurodov had given Uzbekistan the lead and Hector Cuper’s side will now face Australia in the Round of 16 while the Japanese will face the Group E runners-up, either Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

White Wolves’ boss Argentinian Hector Cuper talked to the media that it’s not a failure may make his team unhappy since his lads played a great football against Samurai Blues.

"You always feel bad when your team receive a defeat in an important game, but today’s game was quite good for me, so we must not be unhappy. We had a lot of chances to score more goals and we had ball possessions well enough. Japan was a strong pressing, but I was satisfied with our players’ efforts today.

Now we play against Australia in the Round of 16. Of course, Australia is also a difficult team for us. But we will focus more on our team. If we play our game well, we will achieve the result we want. We have three days to recover. I guess it will take time to analyse our mistakes and work on them.

Australia will have two more days to recover. But I do not think this is important. We need to play our game. All the players in the squad will be in good mood and energy in the match against Australia. We will do our best for victory over Socceroos.

The defeat against Japan is not the end of the story. We must prepare for Australia clash in a high conditions. If team confidence is lost after a single defeat, this team is not professional. We can resolve the issues in the next stage. That's why, we are not feeling bad after today’s lost to Japan" said the Argentinean coach.