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DOHA: Qatar coach Felix Sanchez was delighted to see the ‘fight’ from his boys after the home team beat Iran 2-1 in their Group A clash on day four of the AFC U-23 Championship on Friday.
“It was nice to see the players fight on the pitch,” coach Sanchez said yesterday. “To achieve six points from two games gives us confidence,” he added. “No team is sure of reaching next round though,” he said.
In what was a dominating performance, Ahmed Alaa and Abdelkareem Hassan on Friday produced a daredevil show to fire the two goals for the winners.
Alaa scored the first goal in the 40th minute while captain Hassan found the net in the 56th minute at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. For Iran, the deficit was reduced by Ali Karimi in the 91st minute.
“Now we are looking at the third clash. We will celebrate this win, rest and prepare for next game,” he said. Sanchez thanked the fans for the large turnout at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
“It was great to see so many fans cheering the team,” Sanchez said.
“The players enjoy such support and get good vibes during a game. This is a long event. There are many matches to go. Tough teams are here in Qatar. Thankfully I have all players at my disposal. Iran have a good side. They are physically also strong. But my players counter-attacked well. They did not let them dominate,” he said.
Qatar captain Abdelkareem Hassan, meanwhile, termed his team’s 2-1 win against Asian powerhouse as ‘important’. Qatar won 2-1 in their AFC U-23 Championship match at Al Sadd Stadium.
“This is an important win,” Hassan said after scoring one of the two goals on Friday. “We want to reach the quarterfinals and I am hopeful we are on right track,” he said.
Hassan scored twice in Qatar’s 3-1 win on Tuesday against China in Group A.
“Now we play Syria. We will play to win. The coach has given us a plan. We have been playing strong. We are waiting to play the next clash,” he said.
Defender Yasser Ahmed said: “To qualify for the next stage, we must continue to fight. We gave our best and we need to keep playing in the same vein.”
He added: “We are happy to get three points. This gives us confidence. I am sure we will be playing in the same way. It will be a tough game but we are ready.”
Qatar player Ahmed Al Saadi said his team ‘deserved’ to win their match against a powerful Iran side.
“We deserved to win since we battled all the way,” Al Saadi yesterday. “We dominated play most of the time.
“Our consistent run helped us overcome Iran,” Al Saadi said. “Iran is one of the more stronger sides in Asia. They played well against Syria also. There was a clear determination from our side to win. Now we turn out focus on Syria,” he said.
Influential Qatar midfielder Akram Afif said his players ‘did well’ against Iran in which the home side won 2-1.
“We played well as a team. It was a difficult game, I have to say. We studied our opponents well. We stuck to our plans. We ran well and created pressure,” Afif said yesterday.
“We did not deviate from the plan of the coach,” he said. “Winning and getting three points makes us happy. We are looking to another good outing against Syria (tomorrow),” Afif said.
“Like our coach said, we will go step by step. We need more luck and we can do wonders.”
“There was tension before the China game but we feel that’s all gone now. We can’t wait for the next match. We will play to win, for sure. We have a steely resolve to win,” Afif said.
The Peninsula
