We don’t want to take Afghanistan lightly, says Qatar coach Sanchez
DOHA: Asian champions Qatar will take on Afghanistan in the joint qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup here at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium (Al Sadd) on Thursday evening.
The 2022 World Cup hosts may prove a handful for the strife-torn nation against the 149th ranked team, but Qatar coach Felix Sanchez doesn’t want to take them lightly as topping Group E will ensure a direct spot alongside the four best runners-up at the 2023 Asian Cup.
“We may be strong on paper, but we don’t want to take our opponents lightly. In football, anything can happen,” Sanchez said at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “We’re aware of their strengths and weaknesses. We just want to have a good start in front of our fans tomorrow.”
As hosts, Qatar has automatically qualified for the football’s premier competition, but the former Aspire Academy trainer said that the team is motivated to do well in the world’s top football competition three years from now.
“Our target is to be consistent and show that Qatar has a strong team,” Sanchez added.
India, Oman and Bangladesh are the other teams in the WCQ group, with Qatar face India at the same venue on September 12.
“We’re happy to start the qualifiers at home. This will be first time since the Asian Cup in January that we will be playing in front of our fans. We look forward to a good performance,” said Sanchez, who was appointed head coach of the Olympic national team last month.
The Spaniard has a great track record with various national teams, starting with the AFC U-19 Championship victory in 2014, followed by a third place finish at the AFC U-23 Championship in 2018, and finally the historic triumph with the senior team at 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
However, Sanchez said that ‘those are memories and the team needs to move ahead’.
“It was a great achievement as we were able to compete at the highest level in Asia. But that had happened six months ago. It’s an old memory. The players are now raring to go for the World Cup and want to maintain that continuity when the tournament will be held here,” he added.
Squad: Meshaal Barsham, Saad Al Sheeb, Pedro Miguel, Salem Al Hajri, Tarek Salman, Abdelkarim Hassan, Khoukhi Boualem, Hassan Al Haydos, Akram Afif, Abdulaziz Al Ansari, Hashim Ali (Al Sadd), Bassam Al Rawi, Assim Madibo, Almoez Ali, Karim Boudiaf, Ali Afif, Mohammed Al Bakri (Al Duhail), Yousuf Abdurrazaq, Musab Kheder, Ahmed Fathi (Al Arabi(, Almahdi Ali, Ahmed Alaaeldin (Al Gharafa), Abdulaziz Hatem (Al Rayyan), Abdullah Abdulsalam (Al Ahli).
