AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah has praised the Qatar team for their maiden victory in the AFC U-19 Championship in Myanmar.

Qatar defeated DPR Korea 1-0 in the final of the championship, in what was the West Asians’ second win over their rivals in the same competition following their 3-1 victory in the group phase.

Qatar were unbeaten in the tournament, and Shaikh Salman believes that the side showed great promise and quality during such an impressive campaign.

The AFC President stated that the Qatar side has what it takes to succeed at a higher level and hopes that this group will be well prepared for the future. The AFC President believes that the Qatar Football Association has laid the right foundation for its youth teams and hopes that it will reap great rewards in the coming years.

Qatar and DPR Korea will represent Asia at next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand together with Myanmar and Uzbekistan. The AFC President spoke of his confidence of the teams’ chances at next year’s tournament although it came with a reminder that preparations should begin as soon as possible.

He also lauded the Myanmar fans for making this tournament a grand success saying this edition of the competition broke all attendance records in AFC’s age-group competitions.


MISSED CHANCES COST US, CONCEDES DPR KOREA COACH

Coach An Ye-gun rued the missed chances and tiredness that according to him were to blame for DPR Korea’s 1-0 defeat to Qatar in Thursday’s AFC U-19 Championship final, as his side fell short in their quest for a fourth title at this tournament.

Forwards Jo Sol-song and Jo Kwang-myong both had golden opportunities to open the scoring in the first half with the former seeing a shot blocked by Qatar goalkeeper Yousof Hassan and his strike-partner going even closer shortly after, as his close-range effort was deflected onto the upright and behind.

But in the second-half their prolificacy was punished as Qatar substitute Akram Afif scored mere seconds after coming on and although An’s side toiled in search of an equaliser, they struggled to create further meaningful openings.

“We had a lot of chances in the first half but we just couldn’t take them. If we could have scored just one of them it would have brought more strength to the players, but it wasn’t meant to be,” said An. “And then Qatar scored early in the second-half which meant my players maybe felt too much pressure to quickly get an equaliser and they tried to attack too urgently and we couldn’t create our combinations.

“The most important thing I’ve learned from this tournament is that the players have to be physically prepared. If you are not in the right shape even if you are a good player, you will play bad,” he added.

“I’d like to congratulate Qatar on winning the championship and I have a feeling we will have many more chances to play against them in the future at this stage of tournaments,” he added.