Qatar's national team for the 2022 World Cup

The story about the participants of the 2022 FIFA World Cup begins with the team of Qatar, which will host the tournament and on these rights will perform in Group "A".

Qatar

A small state located on the Arabian Peninsula and washed on three sides by the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is a former British colony, which gained its independence in 1971. One of the largest exporters of gas and oil, thanks to which it has risen significantly economically. Without the Qatari economy, of course, there would be no World Cup here.

Qatar national soccer team

It is far from certain that the Qatari team would have made it to the World Cup if the host country had not been automatically admitted to the finals. The Qataris, despite their serious progress in recent years, are not the strongest team in the Middle East, let alone Asia in general.

The first local successes of Qatari soccer are associated with the Olympics: in 1984 in Los Angeles, the local team made its first appearance under the shadow of the five rings, and in 1992 in Barcelona they reached the quarterfinals. In 2006, the Qataris won gold in the Asian Summer Games.

In 2019, a real celebration came to Qatari soil: the national team won the Asian Cup. It rolled over its opponents in the group stage - 2-0 with Lebanon, 6-0 with North Korea, 2-0 with Saudi Arabia, in the playoffs it dealt with Iraq - 1-0, South Korea - 1-0, UAE - 4-0. In the final, the Qataris finally conceded the first goal of the tournament, but responded by scoring three goals against Japan - 3:1.

The Qatari team's progress was initially ensured by naturalized players, such as Brazilians Fabio Cesar and Marcio Pazos (who turned into Emerson Sheikh) and Uruguayan Sebastian Soria. FIFA did not like this policy very much, although it has only itself to blame. Qatar itself is a country with a very large non-indigenous population - about 90%. That's why there's such a policy in soccer: many of the players in the current squad were not born in Qatar and started playing soccer in other countries. But they settled here, converted to Islam, some even changed their names. Financial conditions in the domestic championship are excellent - it is not without reason that Raul and Gabriel Batistuta, Fernando Hierro and Josep Guardiola, Marcel Desaiy and Romario, Xavi and Stefan Effenberg have played in Qatar.

The Qatar national team has been coached for five years by Spaniard Felix Sanchez, who has worked at the Barcelona academy. That's why the soccer shown by his charges is a bit similar to the Spanish and differs from the athletic and not very spectacular game of our neighbors in West Asia.

The main stars of the Qatari national team

The most authoritative Qatari player is striker Hassan Al-Haydos, team captain and record holder for the number of matches (165). The best striker is Almoez Ali, who scored 39 goals in 76 games.

On defense, Abdelkarim Hassan stands out, who was named Asia's best player in 2018. In 2019, Akram Afif, an attacking midfielder, was awarded the same prize. He, by the way, is the most expensive player in the national team - worth 5.5 million euros.

Opponents in Group A

Netherlands, Ecuador, Senegal.

Qatar's national team performance forecast

The group is quite mysterious, so it can not be ruled out that the Qataris can make it to the playoffs in their field, taking one of the top two places in the group. It seems that the Dutch team is the favorite, but history shows that it is too unreliable horse, which is dangerous to bet on. Ecuador and Senegal, if they are stronger than Qatar, are not strong enough to give them three points.