25 Mar 2019
Doha, 25 March 2019. Qatar U-23 national football team made it two out of two wins in the on-going qualifiers for AFC U-23 Championship Thailand 2020 finals. Qatar thrashed Nepal 5-0 during match day 2 at Aspire Academy on Sunday 24th March to shoot to the top of the four-team table ahead of Oman on goal difference. Oman has also won two matches to date and after beating Afghanistan 2-1 in match day 2, to set up the decider against hosts Qatar on match day 3.
Unlike in the first match against Afghanistan when the Qatari team turned on the performance in the first half, it was the opposite against Nepal, with the deluge of goals coming the second half. AFC Asian Cup winning star and Aspire graduate, Bassam al-Rawi scored two superb long-range goals Qatar had opened the scoring after 25 minutes when midfielder Abdullah Al Ahrak converted his second penalty sport kick is as many matches. Graduate Al- Ahrak scored his second goal towards the end of the match but before that an unfortunate Nepalese defender, Dinesh Rajbanshi put one past his own goalkeeper in an attempt to stop a goal bound short from Abdulrasheed Umaru.
Speaking after the match- two goal hero Bassam al-Rawi said, “ It’s a very important win and the 3 points puts us in the lead. We played to the instructions of the coach and got one goal in the first half. During the break the coach asked us to take shots on goal and when we did we scored four more goals. The target for all four teams is to qualify for AFC U-23 Championship Thailand 2020 finals and subsequently qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympics so the competition here has been fierce. I am happy that after changing my boots l was able to shoot home two good goals from distance in these new boots."
Match day 3 on Tuesday 2th March will concluded the qualifier with the mouth-watering decider between Qatar and Oman while Afghanistan and Nepal will clash in a match to avoid the wooden spoon.