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Coach Felix Sanchez Bas praised his Qatar players for accomplishing their "dream" of securing a place in the AFC U-19 Championship semi-final for the first time since 1990 as well as a place at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with a 4-2 victory over China in their quarter-final at Wunna Theikdi Stadium on Friday. |
In an action-filled tie that featured six goals, three red cards and two penalties, Qatar held the lead throughout thanks to goals from Ahmed al-Sadi, Akram Afif, Ahmad Moein and Almoez Ali with the East Asians responding through Gui Hong and Wei Jingzong.
Zhou Yuchen and Wei Shihao saw red for China while Assim Madibo was also dismissed for Qatar in a heated clash in Nay Pyi Taw, but it was the West Asians who did enough to secure their place in tomorrow's semi-finals where they are set to experience the cauldron of noise that will be a packed Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium in Yangon against hosts Myanmar.
"Today is the day to enjoy this achievement; it is a dream for the players. I am so happy we are into the semi-finals and also qualified for the World Cup," said Qatar coach Sanchez Bas, who stressed that the early goal from al-Sadi after five minutes was crucial.
"When you score very early it gives you more confidence, in the first minutes of a game the players are nervous so we pressed high early on and got rewarded with an early goal.
“We continued with our game-plan and our mentality was very good in the first-half. In the second half the players knew they were on the verge of qualifying for the semi-finals and for the World Cup so they were maybe a bit too excited and we conceded.
"But, thankfully, we were able to score again and get the result we needed."
The Spaniard also underlined the importance of the vital second goal just before half-time as substitute Afif, who had barely been on the pitch more than a few minutes, surged through the centre and into the penalty area before being upended by goalkeeper Zhou—who earned a red card—and scoring the resulting spot-kick.
"Afif came on in the first half because Jassim Al Jalabi didn't feel good after a tackle, so we didn't want to wait until half-time and then it turns out his coming on created a key moment in the game by winning and scoring the penalty," added Sanchez Bas.
"Going 2-0 up at half time was psychologically very important for the team, especially as China were then reduced to ten men, and this was one of the key turning points in the game."
China coach Zheng Xiong agreed that the decision to award the penalty against his goalkeeper was a major factor in his team's defeat.
"The penalty was 100% the turning point in the game, I thought generally my players performed better than the Qatar players in what was a very, very tough match—I am still proud of my players," said Zheng.
"This tournament was a good experience for us and for me. It has really helped give me a good preparation for AFC tournaments in the future, and also – as we saw in tonight's match – many unforeseeable and unexpected situations can happen in a game – so this will help me to prepare my teams better in the future."
