Qatar’s young stars such as Almoez Ali, Akram Afif and Bassem al-Rawi will get a rare chance to impress against Brazil when the teams clash in a friendly international at the 72,000-capacity Mané Garrincha Stadium in Brasilia.
The match will be played at 3.30am Qatar Time tomorrow and is only the second occasion that Qatar will be facing the mighty Selecao, renowned for their passion and style that have fetched them five World Cup titles so far.
The only time the two sides met previously was in 1979 when Brazil won 6-1, and although the Samba Kings are ranked third in the FIFA rankings currently, as against Qatar’s 55th, Felix Sanchez’s boys are determined to make a fight of it.
The Brazil match, of course, is Qatar’s biggest friendly ever and is part of the country’s preparations for the Copa America beginning later this month in which they have been placed in Group B along with Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay.
But as the team builds up to the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the QFA will be lining up more prestigious friendlies, a ploy that worked well for the country ahead of the Asian Cup earlier this year, which they won.
Ahead of the Asian tournament, Qatar played matches against Iceland, Switzerland, China and Ecuador, among others.
They caused a shock when they defeated Switzerland 1-0 and drew 1-1 with Iceland. Those performances went a long way in raising the profile and morale ahead of the Asian Cup in which they defeated teams such as South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Japan on way to the title.
Brazil, despite their prestige in world football, have not had it all smooth in recent times. They failed to get past the quarter-finals of last year’s World Cup in Russia, losing to Belgium, and have been also dogged by controversies. 
As far as the Copa America is concerned, the last of their eight titles came in 2007, but there is no denying the fact that they can be dangerous on their home turf.
“There are not many difficult things to do than playing against Brazil,” Sanchez said before heading off to the US along with the team, en route to Brazil. 
“Of course, if Neymar plays we will try our best to minimise his impact on the match but they also have other great players,” he added.
Qatar will have a closed door game against a club team on June 9 before taking on Paraguay on June 16 in the Copa America.
Sanchez added that he was not thinking about the results in the tournament.
“We will try our best to compete. Let’s see how far we can go. In any case the experience of playing in the Copa America would be of great help to the players. They will be much better players after that. It will help them for the big challenges ahead, especially the 2022 World Cup.”
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