Sports
Qatar showed real quality in second half, says Lopez
Qatar beat Kuwait 3-0 on Thursday thanks to Afif’s double strike
March 22, 2024 | 11:37 PM
Marquez Lopez was proud of Qatar’s ability to increase their tempo in the 3-0 win over Kuwait in Group A of the Preliminary Joint Qualification – Round 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 on Thursday. After a goalless first half at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, Akram Afif wearing the captain’s armband after Hassan al-Haydos announced his international retirement recently opened and closed the scoring for Lopez’s side as Qatar moved on to nine points from three Group A matches."I am happy with this result. The match was not easy, especially in the first half," said Lopez, who led Qatar to their successful defence of the AFC Asian Cup in February."Kuwait played with a good defensive strategy but we showed our best in the second half and converted our chances. However, Tuesday’s match will be difficult as Kuwait will try to make up for this loss," the Spaniard added.Al Sadd forward Afif tapped in from close range two minutes into the second half to put Qatar in front and Ahmed al-Rawi doubled the lead four minutes later when he pounced on a rebound after Sulaiman Abdulghafoor had spilled a long-range shot.Afif also saw his shot kept out by Abdulghafoor in the 68th minute only to score at the second attempt and put the seal on Qatar’s win. The win moves the Asian Cup holders five points clear at the top of the group standings, with India in second after a 0-0 draw with Afghanistan.The first two finishers in each of the nine groups advance to the next stage of determining which nations will take Asia’s eight guaranteed berths at the 48-team World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the United States.Meanwhile, the defeat left Kuwait six points behind Qatar and one adrift of India at the halfway stage but head coach Rui Bento refused to believe that his team can’t advance. "We still have a chance even though we lost today. I think we performed well in the first half and had some chances to score but we didn’t capitalise on them. We played well but we were facing a strong team who controlled the match in the second half and scored three goals due to our lapses in concentration and mistakes. We still have three matches and we still have chances to qualify," said Costa.India and Afghanistan played to a goalless draw in the group’s other tie, meaning there will be everything to play for when they meet again on Tuesday."Disappointed with the result in the end because we created three or four really good chances. We could not score, which is the problem that has been following us for many years," said India head coach Igor Stimac."We should have won with the chances we created, we tried different combinations and players but it just did not work. At times we choose complicated options and we have to learn to decide better."
March 22, 2024 | 11:37 PM