Samuel Silvera is keen on stamping his mark after making it to the Australian AFC Asian Cup Qatar squad. The Middlesbrough forward only collected his first international cap with the Socceroos last September but has done enough to earn head coach Graham Arnold’s faith as Australia look to reclaim the trophy they won in 2015.
“Honestly, it’s a massive privilege,” he said in an interview on the Socceroos website. “Thank you to Arnie (Graham Arnold) for putting the trust in me, to have the confidence in me, hopefully I can repay him when I get on the pitch. We’re going to work hard, and the focus is obviously to go out and do our best, for myself as well as for the team.”
“I think the first couple days have been just getting amongst the boys and having a good laugh and getting the camaraderie going. But I think we have an amazing squad here, and I think with the talent that we have in this squad, we can do really well in this tournament.”
With four goals and three assists thus far for his English club this season, Silvera is certainly in fine form and will get to showcase his value when Australia take on Bahrain in a friendly match in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. In the AFC Asian Cup, Australia are in Group B where they will face India in their opening game on January 13 with matches against Syria and Uzbekistan to come.
Saudi beat Lebanon in friendly
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia beat Lebanon 1-0 the friendly match at the Al Wakrah Stadium on Thursday. The only goal of the match was scored by Firas al-Braikan in the 48th minute.
Saudi, which won the Asian Cup in 1984, 1988 and 1996, will face Oman, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan at the Asian Cup, while Lebanon are grouped with hosts Qatar, China and Tajikistan.
Among the teams that have checked in, Uzbekistan and Jordan completed their first training session in Doha on Wednesday.
Samuel Silvera. (AFP)
