Meriem Guettat
Qatar will have their hands full in the Pool B of the AFC U-23 Championship Thailand 2020 as they face a challenge in the form of Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. The Group B contenders will kick off their campaigns in Bangkok tomorrow.
The draw, which was held in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, resulted in the distribution of the 16 teams to 4 groups, in pool A: Thailand, Iraq, Australia, and Bahrain, pool B with Qatar, Syria, Japan, Saudi Arabia, pool C Uzbekistan, South Korea, China, and Iran and lastly in pool D Vietnam, North Korea, Jordan, and the UAE. The champion, runner-up and third-place team will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and if host Japan is within the first three places, then the fourth place will also qualify.
Qatar will be looking to go at least one step further at Thailand 2020 than they have in previous involvements in the competition as the West Asian side seek to overcome their inability to advance beyond the semi-finals.
Qatar reached the last four in both 2016 and 2018, only to fall short of reaching the final on both occasions, with the added heartbreak of a loss in the third-place play-off on home soil four years ago seeing them miss out on a place at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Sanchez knows that the road to Tokyo begins with overcoming the obstacle of group stages, where the Qatar team will face heavy-handed confrontations in the first round tomorrow, Thursday, facing the Syrian team before clashing with the Saudi team.