Salim Cheniouni
Jakarta, Indonesia: Coach Bruno Miguel believes Qatar are
improving with every game after Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Chinese Taipei secured
a place in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-19 Championship.
Qatar finished the group in pole position, ahead of hosts
Indonesia who defeated UAE to book second place for a place in the quarter-finals.
Striker Abdulrasheed Umaru reached the five-goal mark in the
tournament so far to send Qatar back to Jakarta, where they are set to take on
Thailand next Sunday for a place in the semi-final.
“We have improved gradually in every match so far in the tournament,
we are displaying the right type of football,” Miguel said.
“My team kicked off matters rather nervously, leading us to
miss many clear cut chances in the first half, but we managed to gather
ourselves pretty quickly and soon demonstrated that we were clearly the more
superior side of the two”.
“Now we have to shift our focus on the next match against
Thailand, it is an important game, but we will try not over-motivate the
players, they have to realize that it is just another match in which we have to
do our best to get the result we are looking for”.
The four semifinalists will qualify to represent Asia in the
2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup set to take place in Poland next summer.
Qatar won the 2014 edition in Myanmar by beating North Korea
in the final. The champions in 2014 later qualified to play the 2015 FIFA U-20
World Cup held in New Zealand.