Two deflected goals in either half from Abdulrazak Al Husein sandwiched Taiseer Al Jassam's equaliser as Syria upset the 2007 finalists at Al Rayyan Stadium to get their Asian Cup Group B campaign off to an excellent start.

"To be honest, I didn't expect this result but I expected to have a very good performance," said Valeriu, who only took charge of the national side last month.

"We have good players and the performance of the players was really impressive. We played a great game although I have only had a short period with the team.

"However, we had a good mixture in our side and this was the key point behind the win tonight."

Despite the unexpected victory, Valeriu was keen to stress Syria still have crucial encounters against Japan and Jordan to come if they are to reach the last eight.

"This is only the first match and all the teams in the group still have a chance to advance to the next stage," the Romanian added.

"We might have won the battle but the war is yet to be won."

Opposite number Jose Peseiro felt Saudi Arabia were unfortunate not get something out of the contest.

"In some periods we were the better team and controlled the game and in the second half there was a lot of enthusiasm," said the Portuguese.

"There was also a lot of emotions and we didn't deserve to lose the game. I'm disappointed at the result especially as we had some chances in the second half."

Yasser Al Qahtani had sufficiently recovered from injury to take his place in the starting line-up but the prolific 28-year-old was largely ineffective throughout.

Peseiro, though, refused to criticise the talismanic striker's performance and insisted Saudi Arabia can recover from the setback to make it into the quarter-finals, staring with Thursday's clash against Jordan.

"I'm the coach and I choose the players but if they make mistakes, I talk to them individually. The responsibility of scoring goals doesn't fall just on strikers only, it is the responsibility of the whole team," he added.

"In the 2010 World Cup, Spain lost the first game but they managed to bounce back with good performances and win the World Cup.

"We showed good spirit and enthusiasm in the second-half and hopefully we can repeat this performance."