A confident Qatar will take on Haiti in their opening match of Group B in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on Sunday.
Qatar, who made it to the semi-finals of the tournament in their first appearance in 2021, will be meeting Haiti for the first time ever in the Gold Cup.
Haiti and Qatar have only met once before, a 1-0 victory for the Caribbean squad in an international friendly, on November 18, 2010, at the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar.
Both nations are looking to match their best Gold Cup performances of reaching the semi-final. Qatar’s star striker Almoez Ali, while speaking on the eve of the match against Haiti, said Al Annabi were aiming to make the final this time.
“We have previously reached the semi-finals, and this time we are looking forward to reaching the final but the task will certainly not be easy,” he said.
“We have prepared well for the tournament by going through the preparation camp in Austria, and before that we gathered in Doha. All players are in good technical and physical condition and we hope that we will be successful, starting with the Haiti match.
“The three points are important for us to open the tournament in the best way before facing Honduras. We hope to achieve victory in that match as well and to settle the progress before our clash with Mexico – which will certainly be difficult,” he stressed.
Qatar midfielder Ali Asad also said the team will play to win and achieve the three points.
“The Haiti match will determine our course in the tournament, and therefore the points are very important for us.”
“Some players are participating for the first time in this tournament and will aim to play and score on their international appearance for the first time. Everyone will fight to prove themselves and get the opportunity in the Gold Cup,” he added.
The 2019 Asian champions Qatar have gone some transformation in the team since the arrival of the highly experienced Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, who has been happy with the team’s training camp in Austria where the players also played a few international friendlies and won against Jamaica.
QNA quoted Queiroz as saying: “The camp went according to plan as the goal was to prepare the players in all physical, technical and tactical aspects to compete in the Gold Cup. “I am happy with the performance of the players, especially the youth. They showed great commitment during the training sessions and showed a great fighting spirit during their participation in the matches, and the most important thing is the development they have shown in a short period of time,” he added.
The coach stressed that the Gold Cup will be a stepping stone for Qatar towards the AFC Asian Cup 2023.
“We are towards big goals that we set from the beginning which is to compete in the Asian Cup finals and qualify for the next World Cup 2026, but before that we need to form a strong side, without relying on a certain number of players, because building a competitive team requires the presence of an integrated group of players,” Queiroz said. Qatar aim for a winning start against Haiti, who came closest to winning the tournament in 2019 where extra time was needed for eventual champions Mexico to move on and will repeat 11 players from that squad for this edition.
Their new coach Gabriel Calderon Pellegrino has taken over a team that comes into the Gold Cup red hot, having rolled through its CONCACAF Nations League League B slate undefeated, winning five and drawing one. Duckens Nazon leads the nation with seven goals in Gold Cup play and is one of the many options up front for Haiti, alongside Carnejy Antoine, who was the country’s leading scorer with five in the recent 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League.
Qatar are back for their second appearance after debuting in 2021 when they were one
win away from the final before falling to eventual champions USA. Almoez headlines the squad as he looks to increase his tally of four goals in the competition. The Haitians have plenty of quality individuals, but they have not played together as long as the Qatari squad, who have some equally potent attacking players to choose from, and the Maroons’ continuity is expected to get them through.
Qatar have been invited to the Gold Cup as guests for a second consecutive edition of the North American tournament and are aiming to go all the way in the continental showpiece and to become the first guest team to win the competition. The group’s second game of the doubleheader in Houston on the same day will feature eight-time champions Mexico against Honduras.

QATAR SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Salah Zakaria, Mishaal Barshim, Youssef Hassan
Defenders: Ahmed Suhail, Bassam al-Rawi, Jassim Jaber, Hazem Ahmed, Tariq Salman, Musab Khader, Homam al-Amin, Youssef Ayman
Midfielders: Ahmed Fathi, Asim Madabo, Abdullah Marafi, Ali Asad, Mohamed Waad, Mustafa Meshaal, Mahdi Salem
Strikers: Almoez Ali, Tamim Mansour, Khaled Mounir, Mohamed Muntari, Youssef Abdel Razza.