“From the very first moment of our preparations for the Asian Cup, we developed the dream of qualifying for the World Cup finals,” said El Khatib.

“The victory over Kuwait is the first step towards achieving our goal of reaching the World Cup. It was a very competitive match played in high intensity.

“We had some difficulties but what was important was to secure the win and learn from our mistakes ahead of the match against Thailand that is bound to be another tough one.”

Defeat has put a dent on Kuwait’s hopes of reaching the next phase of the competition, a result that was made tougher to swallow having fought back from 3-1 down to lead 4-3 and Jassim Alsabea - who scored the fourth - vowed his side will bounce back against India on Saturday.

“We were unfortunate against Lebanon, but we promise our fans that we will make up for it in the next match,” said Alsabea.

“We are all united in our efforts to achieve that. The atmosphere in our training camp has been very positive, with excellent preparation over the past two months, which strengthens our determination to overcome this setback and continue in the tournament.”