The Peninsula
Akram Afif struck once but also missed a penalty as Qatar beat Nicaragua 2-1 in a friendly match in Marbella, Spain on Thursday night. Qatar, who are training in Spain as they prepare for their World debut at home, are playing friendly matches against national teams and clubs.
Against Nicaragua, who is ranked 142nd in the world, Afif gave Qatar the lead with a stoppage-time penalty. The Asian champions doubled the lead in the 70th minute with Mohamed Muntari finding the net.
The Central Americans hit back five minutes later as Galeano struck to equalise.
While Qatar managed to see the game off, they could have increased the scoreline only for Afif to miss a penalty late in the game.
Spaniard Felix Sanchez, who has taken a 27-player squad for the final phase of preparatory camp for the World Cup, named a strong line-up for the friendly match.
Saad Al Sheeb took the goalkeeping duties, while Boualem Khoukhi, Tarek Salman, Abdelkarim Hasan, and Mohamed Waad were the defenders.
Ismaeel Mohamed, Karim Boudiaf, Abdulaziz Hatem, Hasan Al Haydos, Ahmed Alaaedin, and Akram Afif made up the rest of the XI.
Qatar begins their World Cup against Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium on November 20. They also play Senegal and the Netherlands in Group A.
In their recent friendlies, Qatar lost to Canada 0-2 on September 23 at Villa Park in Vienna, before holding Chile to a 2-2 draw at the same venue four days later.
Sanchez, however, said before leaving for Spain that he expected Qatar to put in a much better performance than they have done in the recent past.
“We’re going to keep training harder and try to improve on things that are not working. We need to always analyse our games and see what we can do to improve,” Sanchez, who led Qatar to its maiden Asian Cup title in 2019, said.