“Today, we had some serious opposition,” he said. “The two halves turned out to be completely different.

“We conceded two goals and then came back strongly to win. We made a lot of mistakes and I hope we can learn from them and be stronger in our next match.”

Amirzhan Mukanov, the Kyrgyz coach, had no complaints about the defeat.

“We expected a tough match and that is what we got,” said Mukanov. “We could have scored more but, as it turned out, they won and that is that.

“Despite losing, we can still do well in the group. We have set ourselves a target and hope to achieve it.”

Korean lessons

In the other match, Vietnam beat Korea Republic 7-3, with coach Sergio Gargelli saying he expected more from the Koreans.

“We deserve praise for the victory but, frankly, I expected the Koreans to play better than they did,” said Gargelli.

“We came here as one of the weaker teams but now we are just one match away from reaching the quarter-finals. We are no longer the whipping boys.”

Korean coach Lee Chang-hwan said his team will learn from the defeat and come back stronger.

“In the first half, we were pretty much equal (Vietnam led 2-1) but they played a perfect game in the second half,” said Lee.

“We have two more games in which to play better and hopefully we can do it.”