Asian Cup 2019: Impressive Qatar team

Remember, Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup. This is what made the whole world condemn FIFA for awarding the hosting right to a country with too many problems related to the natural environment and the level of the national team. Public opinion criticized this country for not being worthy of hosting the World Cup because of the limited level of the Qatar team.

For the 2022 World Cup goal

Qatar is the “dark horse” of the 2019 Asian Cup. This makes both the country’s Football Federation and FIFA breathe a sigh of relief. Photo: AFC

Qatar have never qualified for a World Cup before. The closest they came was in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, when they needed only a draw against Saudi Arabia to secure a place in France. But they lost 1-0 and were eliminated.

In the history of the World Cup, there has only been one time when a country hosted the tournament without having previously participated in the World Cup. That was the case with Italy in 1934, having previously not participated in the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. It can be seen that the case of Italy is very different from the current Qatar.

The Qatar Football Federation is racing against time to change the face of football in this country. They spare no expense in throwing money into football, with 8 naturalized players in the Qatar team participating in the 2015 Asian Cup. However, this quick-fix policy has not helped Qatar take off and they are spending money on hiring good coaches. The record was in 2011 when within just 1 year, Qatari players were coached by 3 different foreign coaches: Bruno Metsu, Milovan Rajevac and Sebastiao Lazaroni.

The Qatar Football Federation is rejuvenating its squad to prepare for the 2022 World Cup. Last year, coach Felix Sanchez was also in charge of Qatar U23 at the AFC U23 Championship. They won Group A with 3 wins against Uzbekistan, China and Oman. In the quarter-finals, Qatar U23 beat Palestine 3-2 and lost to Vietnam in the semi-finals on penalties.

In the last 10 matches, Qatar has won 6, drawn 1 and lost 3. The host of the 2022 World Cup has made careful preparations for this Asian Cup by inviting many opponents from Europe and America for friendly matches. Qatar lost to Algeria and Iran, but those were difficult opponents with very high professional background.

Top scorer candidate

Almoez Ali shines with a poker shot. Photo: AFC

Playing as a striker in a 4-1-4-1 formation, Almoez Ali played the hero role in Qatar's 6-0 victory over North Korea in the second match of Group E of the 2019 Asian Cup finals. Qatar's No. 19 striker scored a poker in this match, thereby helping him rise to the top of the list of top scorers of the 2019 Asian Cup with 5 goals.

This impressive victory helped Qatar get 6 absolute points after two matches, thereby advancing to the 1/8 round of the Asian Cup 2019. Qatar is currently ranked first in Group E with the same number of points as Saudi Arabia, but has a better goal difference (+8 compared to +6), meaning the match between the two teams in the final round will decide the top spot.

Almoez Ali took advantage of the passes of left winger Akram Hassan Afif. With just 4 shots, this number 19 had 4 goals, a 100% scoring efficiency. AFC has just set a record of 51 minutes to score 4 goals at the Asian Cup.

The previous record was held by Bahrain's Ismaeel Abdullatif in a 5-2 rout of India in 2011. The player scored the first goal in the 16th minute and the fourth in the 77th minute.

Qatar is the “dark horse” of the 2019 Asian Cup. This makes both the country’s Football Federation and FIFA breathe a sigh of relief. The team’s achievements and the progress of Almoez Ali, Akram Afif, Hassan Al-Haydos… will ensure a successful World Cup in 2022. Qatar’s aggressive attacking style, based on their perfect physical and technical foundation, shows that they are young but not immature and are a challenge for any team that wants to win this tournament.