Alkass Digital
Qatar’s surge to their first ever AFC Asian Cup final has taken the competition by storm, but it comes as no surprise for 21-year-old defender Tarek Salman.
A rampant 4-0 win semi-final over host nation United Arab Emirates has Al Annabi 90 minutes away from their greatest ever international football achievement, having racked up six AFC Asian Cup wins in a row without conceding a single goal in the competition thus far.
For a team that had won only six of their previous 32 matches in the Finals, it is a turnaround few could have predicted, but Salman said Qatar’s rise is the result of years of considered preparation under head coach Felix Sanchez, and that he is far from surprised.
“Actually, no (I am not surprised), because we have been together for maybe seven years with the coach as a team, as young players, so it’s not the first time to achieve something like this.
“In 2014 we took the AFC U-19 Championship, and in 2018 in China we achieved third in the (U-23) competition, so it’s not the first thing. It’s step by step.
“I’m very proud of myself and my team. It’s a very, very big thing for our country. It’s history. It’s the first time for our country to achieve this level of the competition, to arrive to the final with the top scorer, the top assists, the clean sheet for six games. This makes us very proud of ourselves.
“We hope to continue with this. We now have an extra step against Japan and we need to start to recover from now to be ready for the next game.”
With almost all of the 38,646 fans in attendance at Abu Dhabi’s Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium supporting the UAE, the semi-final looked to pose a significant mental challenge for Qatar, but, with Boualem Khoukhi’s opening goal silencing the crowd, they overcame every hurdle with flying colours.
Salman said his he and his young teammates approached the fixture with calm.
“We talked to each other,” said the Al Sadd stopper. “We were relaxed.
“We said to each other that we are playing a normal game and don’t think about it a lot, just focus on them and do it like we did each game before. We won, and I’m very happy and very proud of our team.”
With the semi-final done, Qatar enter their first continental decider with the confidence of a perfect record, a potent attack and, at least until now, a watertight defence, but, with four-time champions Japan still to play, Salman insists his said will take nothing for granted.
“Japan, in every tournament, as you say, they achieve,” he said. “They arrive to the final, the semi-finals, so they are a very strong team.
“We respect them, but also we have our team and we are ready for them, and we hope to make a good game against them.”