The first match of the Asian Cup took place on January 6 and ended with a score of 1:0 in favor of the Saudi team.
“We were satisfied with our performance. Everyone was against us today — the referees, the spectators, and the Saudi national team itself. The referee did his job, and we were left with ten men, but we maintained our structure and demonstrated solid defense. Yes, we lacked a bit of patience. We will work on improving this aspect of our game,” Datsiev noted in an interview after the match on the "Kyrgyz Sport TV" channel.
In the 34th minute of the first half, Chinese referee Fu Ming sent off Arsen Sharshenbekov, and in the 77th minute, he awarded a penalty against the Kyrgyzstan national team.
