Oman were seconds away from an opening victory against Syria last Sunday only for substitute Ahmad Al Douni to cancel out Al Hadhri's late penalty five minutes into second-half stoppage-time.

Two days later the Uzbeks rallied from a goal down to defeat the Syrians 2-1 to put themselves in pole position for the April 23, AFC/CAF Playoff against Senegal, with Oman knowing that nothing less than a victory will suffice in the final encounter of the three-team tournament in Hanoi.

And it is a scenario that Al Hadhri is perfectly comfortable with as the Oman skipper explained to www.the-afc.com.

"In Arabic there is a saying that translates roughly as 'if you have two things in mind you only lie to yourself'. In this case to think about the draw means you forget about the win and to think only of the win means denying the draw. It's better not to be in two minds and now exactly what you want to do."

Oman's French coach Paul Le Guen was of a similar opinion when he addressed the pre-match press conference, with the former Paris Saint Germain defender saying:

"Uzbekistan can draw or win and of course it is better to be in their position. They are favourites to qualify for the next playoff. But sometimes knowing that you can draw but playing to win is not an easy position. In the minds of players they know a draw is enough so this is not always easy to cope with."

Al Hadhri's 44th minute penalty against Syria was his eighth goal of an impressive Olympic qualifying campaign and the Dhofar striker had a number of chances to increase that tally as the Gulf Sultanate looked to capitalise on their second-half numerical advantage which they obtained when Omar Al Suma was sent off during the interval for violent conduct.

However, Al Hadhri was off form at the My Dinh Stadium prompting some surprising criticism from the Omani and Arab media.

"I leave it to the coach and the technical staff to assess my performance but when we play we play as a team," he responded diplomatically.

"I missed many chances against Syria and I just wasn't lucky that day. We will try to do better against Uzbekistan.

"Uzbekistan is a very strong team. We have played them before and we know their level. Against Syria they didn't perform as well as they can so it is not a good game to judge them on."