Qatar set records galore on their way to Asian Cup title
Doha, Qatar: Almoez Ali broke Ali Daei’s 23-year-record for most goals in a single a tournament with nine strikes in seven matches, but Qatar also set a number of other marks as they majestically won the Asian Cup in the UAE.
Al Annabi came tantalisingly close to setting an unbelievable record of not conceding in the entire tournament. Even though they eventually conceded as Takumi Minamino scored in the 69th minute of the final against Japan, by then Saad Al Sheeb had spent 609 minutes unconquered under the bar, mostly jobless.
Al Sheeb was chosen as the best goalkeeper of the tournament, but Uzbekistan custodian Ignatiy Nesterov and Jordan's Amer Shafi made the most number of saves, 21 and 20 respectively. Al Sheeb’s joblessness was mainly due to the men in front of him and Boualem Khoukhi has to take the main responsibility for that. After starting in the midfield, Khoukhi was brought back to defence in the crucial match against Saudi Arabia where he stayed for the most part of the tournament after that.
Khouhki, who was superb in organising Qatar’s watertight defence, racked up a competition-high 46 clearances, and also found time to score twice including the opener against UAE.
His Al Sadd team-mate Akram Afif was meanwhile busy setting up chances for his team-mates.
Afif, who was the player of the final, had 10 assists to his name, the most in recorded history.
Besides providing the final pass for more than twice as many goals as any other player, Afif and also created a whopping 26 chances, with Australia's Chris Ikonomidis his nearest competitor on 14.
Abdelkarim Hassan’s goal for Qatar against North Korea came after a 23-pass move and was second only to Jamie Maclaren's opening goal for Australia in their 3-0 win over Palestine where the ball was exchanged 32 times before it rested inside the goal.
