Qatar Coach: Participation in European Qualifiers a New Challenge for Players

  • 4 years   ago
Qatar Coach: Participation in European Qualifiers a New Challenge for Players

The first Qatari football team coach Felix Sanchez termed the team's participation in the European qualifiers as positive in light of the presence of large and strong teams. It is a new challenge awaiting the team as they will play two games against India and Oman in the joint Asian qualifiers for the Asian Cup and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, he said.

Speaking during an open media day organized by Qatar Football Association today, Sanchez said that they were waiting for the dates of the two remaining matches to be determined by the Asian Football Confederation. After that they will participate in the Gold Cup championship, he said, adding all these arrangements and changes that took place in the current period are basically related to the global health situation in order to determine our future program.

The coach of the Qatari national team gave the current circumstances of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which affected the general situation in addition to the transfer of the Asian qualifying matches from March to June as the reason for non-participation in the Copa America due to the lack of a time lag between matches against India and Oman and those in the Copa America. This is why we apologized for not being able to participate in it, he said, hoping that they will attend in the future, especially as it is a distinguished tournament and is considered the best preparation for the upcoming events.

He pointed out that the players were looking forward to participating in the Golden Cup, which brings strong teams such as Portugal and Serbia in addition to Luxembourg, Azerbaijan and Ireland. He added that he constantly follow the domestic league matches and there are some players who have presented good levels and demonstrated their ability to represent the team and provide an addition. He pointed out that they have a list of 40 players and in the end the number will be reduced, and there is the possibility of some new players joining the list, indicating that the preparatory period is short, but the most important thing is to ensure that the group that will participate is ready to honor Qatari football.

Sanchez explained that the team's players will be selected on March 13, and the list will include between 25 and 30 players to play the matches against Azerbaijan, Luxembourg and Ireland in the European qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The matches will be held at the end of next month. (QNA)

Comments