Alkass Digital
Coach Felix Sanchez yesterday said Qatar will ‘play hard’ football in their AFC Asian Cup last 16 clash against 2007 champions Iraq at Abu Dhabi’s Al Nahyan Stadium today.
Qatar stormed into the Round of 16 of the 24-team tournament on the back of three straight wins against Lebanon, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
“We will play hard,” Sanchez said yesterday in a pre-match press conference.
“Our aim is to win and to do that we have to be at our best because our opponents are strong,” the Spaniard added.
“Our team is riding high on confidence. This is like the final. To win the match is our goal,” Sanchez said.
“It was wonderful to see the team win three matches with quality football. But now we forget those results because to ensure win, we must start afresh. We will do our best. Iraq has talented players and for us to qualify for the next stage, we must win this match,” Sanchez said.
“We have been working hard for a long time. We have a great team of players who work as a one unit. This was our method in previous matches - to play as a unit and give our best,” Sanchez said yesterday.
“We also played strong teams in friendly matches in the last few matches. We played against Ecuador, Switzerland, Iceland and many other teams. That gave us the match practice and the experience we needed to get the players ready,” Sanchez said.
“We have had enough time to rest and be ready for this match. It is difficult to win in all games of the championship in general but we were able to achieve this because we stuck to our plans. We intend to do just that against Iraq also,” Sanchez said.
“We will have the same approach that we had against all our three rivals (in the first stage),” he added.
“We will only announce our squad before the match. We need to be looking at our training sessions and to see how everybody feels. The players are ready, that much I know. We will field the best playing XI,” Sanchez said.
As for playing against Iraq, another Arab side after beating Saudi Arabia 2-0 in their last game, Sanchez said: “Opponents cannot be chosen. You play whom you get to face. Any opponent will have a tough time. Iraq is a strong team with a distinguished group of players. We look forward to playing to win to qualify for the quarter-finals.”
Reaction to praise from Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho on Thursday after Qatar beat Saudi Arabia, Sanchez said: “Of course it is very nice to hear such words. We feel good to have the praise of a great coach like Mourinho. It was a great game against Saudi and we enjoyed our win.”