U23 Qatar - Asian version of La Masia towards World Cup 2022

In 2014, Qatar made a splash when they won the AFC U19 Championship for the first time. At that time, their squad was the first generation of the Aspire training academy, a football center that Qatar spent a lot of effort and money to open to train young players.

Aspire is a replica of Barca’s La Masia academy and is run and taught by members of the Catalan team themselves. The center’s primary goal is to develop a generation of quality Qatari players for the 2022 World Cup held on home soil.

Qatar's grand plan through the Aspire academy is on track at the moment. After winning the U19 Asian Championship, Qatar set out to conquer the U23 tournament with the core of the players who won the title four years ago in Myanmar. Coach Felix Sanchez led Qatar to the U19 championship, retaining 10 players from that year's squad for this year's tournament.

Thanks to a stable framework, Qatar is able to coordinate smoothly whether playing short balls or counter-attacking with long passes. Their attack has a dangerous striker pair of Akram Afif and Almoez Ali. Almoez is currently leading the list of top scorers with five goals thanks to two braces against China and Palestine.

Qatar are the only team to have won all of the AFC U23 Championships since the start of the tournament. They were drawn in a tough group with Uzbekistan, Oman and hosts China. In the quarter-finals, Qatar beat Palestine, who drew 1-1 with Vietnam in a pre-tournament friendly after leading 3-0.

The form of Felix Sanchez's players is proof of why the team set the goal of winning the championship before entering the tournament, despite the average age of only 19.3. In the hands of the Spanish coach is a golden generation of Qatari football, who not only aim to conquer the continent but also aim for high achievements at the World Cup.

Qatar's current squad includes several players playing in Europe. Midfielders Tarek Salman and Khalid Muneer play for Spanish third division club Atletico Astorga. Defensive midfielder Ahmed Moein plays for Spanish second division club Leonesa. Midfielder Assim Madibo and left winger Akram Afif play for KAS Eupen in the Belgian league.

Not only possessing a talented squad of players, Qatar also received support from a Barca legend, Xavi. The famous player who plays for Qatari club Al Sadd has assisted his compatriot Felix Sanchez when he took over as U23 coach. Some sources even said that Qatar had already targeted Xavi as the head coach of the national team at the 2022 World Cup.

With a squad of players "invested from the beginning", Qatar is considered the most difficult opponent for Vietnam since the beginning of the U23 tournament. However, in the past, Vietnam defeated Qatar with a score of 2-1 in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. And in fact, in every match of this tournament, the red-shirted boys have to face stronger teams. That could be the support for Coach Park Hang-seo and his team entering today's battle.

* The Vietnam - Qatar match takes place at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23. Live on Baonghean.vn.