JAKARTA – Indonesia coach Ivan Kolev has stressed that his players must put their injury-time defeat against Saudi Arabia out of their minds as they prepare to take on Korea Republic in their crucial Group D clash on Wednesday evening.

Both teams need to win to have any hope of progressing to the next round, with the Indonesians still smarting after the Saudis scored three minutes into injury time to take all three points in their encounter at a sold-out Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Saturday evening.

Another full house is expected on Wednesday when the Indonesians take on the perennial World Cup qualifiers and their Bulgarian coach is working to keep his team focused on the task in hand.

“It’s difficult to forget the loss against Saudi but my players are professional and I think the players will come to the field with the final objective of qualifying in their mind,” he said.

“The most important game for us is the next game against Korea. We know so many good things about Korea and we have to attack. We have to find a way to score a goal and we will see the results when the game is finished.”

Victory would guarantee the Indonesians a place in the last eight while a win for Korea would leave Pim Verbeek’s side waiting anxiously on the result of the meeting between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, which will kick off at the same time in Palembang.

Kolev is aware of the difficult task facing his side in Wednesday’s game.

“We all know the Korean team is one of the strongest in Asia,” he said. “So it’s going to be a tough match.

“Both teams will go to the game with the same chance and both teams need to win to go through to the next round. We will see what the result is on the field tomorrow.”

Captain Ponaryo Astaman is expected to play after missing the Saudi Arabia game due to injury while Mahyadi Panggabean may also start.

“Ponaryo will be fit tomorrow while Mahyadi is 80 percent fit to come to the stadium to play tomorrow,” said Kolev.