Qatar national team head coach Felix Sanchez was satisfied with his side’s narrow 1-0 win against India in Group E of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 on Thursday.
Abdel Aziz Hatim scored the only goal on the night as Qatar moved to 19 points from seven matches while India remained on three points, having played six games.
Second-placed Oman are on 12 points, with two matches in hand, and Qatar will seal top spot in Group E if they avoid defeat when the two sides meet on Monday.
“I’m happy that we got the victory tonight because the three points were important for us to remain on top of the group and qualify to the AFC Asian Cup,” said Sanchez.
“We could have scored more goals but we faced a strong defensive side. It was a difficult match for us as India have good players who fought very hard.”
“Despite playing with 10 men, our opponents were organised and they made a big effort in the match. We created many scoring chances but were not lucky as the India goalkeeper (Gurpreet Singh Sandhu) made several saves. We generated around 25 shots in the match and the goalkeeper played a great game once again. He was very good under the bar and made a huge difference. The next time we play again, we will not allow him to be at his best,” the Spaniard added.
“The most important thing for us was to win and get the three points before our important match against Oman which will determine the group winners.”
India assistant coach Shanmugam Venkatesh praised the fighting performance of his players despite being reduced to 10 men following Rahul Bheke’s dismissal in the 18th minute.
“We were convincing today and the match was good tactically,” said Venkatesh. “Despite losing the match, the players performed well. We took (Sunil) Chhetri out at the start of the second half because we want to keep him fresh for the upcoming matches. It was purely a tactical decision.”
“We should build on the good performance today against Qatar in order to have better results against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. We must improve upfront in order to win those two matches. Our team is improving from one match to another and we have a group of players who can have a good future with the national team.”
India’s goalkeeper Gurpreet said: “I didn’t count the number of saves. But I feel it was more than the last time. We played with 10-men for most part of the match. But we had our chances too. Against such quality opposition like Qatar such chances come very rare. We need to take them.”
India play Bangladesh on Monday with victory imperative if they are to book a place in the third round of the Asian Qualifiers for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023.      
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