Alkass Digital
A 23-man Qatar football squad for the Asian Cup arrived last night in the UAE, hoping to make a mark in a tournament traditionally dominated by Japan and Australia and Saudi Arabia Under coach Felix Sanchez. Qatar are confident of improving on their previous best performance of four quarter-final appearances, especially since they are hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022. “I think we can go beyond the quarter-finals in the UAE,” al-Haydos told Gulf Times earlier. “We have very talented players and an excellent coach who has been with the team for one-and-a-half years.
“On top of that we have a very supportive national federation who are in sync with the team’s requirements.”
The confidence of Felix Sanchez’s men of advancing deep into the tournament has also been boosted by two impressive displays in international friendlies last November when they beat Switzerland 1-0 and five days later earned a 2-2 draw against 2016 European quarter-finalists Iceland.
“There is no pressure on us (because of raised expectations). In fact the recent results have only motivated us,” the Al Sadd striker said.
“We are satisfied with our preparations. We hope to continue with our strong performance in the Asian Cup. We feel comfortable, we enjoy the game.” Qatar have also won two more recent warm-up matches against Jordan and Kyrgyzstan before losing narrowly to Algeria and Carlos Queiroz-coached Iran, the top side in the continent. Qatar’s participation in Asia’s biggest football tournament comes at a highly sensitive time in Gulf relations, as host UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have imposed a political and economic boycott on Doha since June 2017.
Officials and players have vowed to put politics to one side during the almost month-long tournament.
“In the end this is football,” Qatar’s goalkeeper Saad al-Sheeb told AFP. “We just control ourselves and play football,” he said.
Five Qatar-based journalists were not allowed into the UAE to cover the tournament, after being kept waiting at Dubai airport for 13 hours before returning to Doha.