31 Jan 2016
Doha, 31 January 2016. Qatar might have suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat against Iraq in the third-place playoff in the AFC U23 Championship, but the youngest team playing in the tournament have proven that they have what it takes to compete with older, more experienced teams. The tournament produced a number of exceptional, individual performances with Ahmed Alaa’s six goals making the Qatari player the top scoring striker of the Championship, whilst his teammate Akram Afif produced an impressive eight assists.
Qatar’s coach Felix Sanchez believes that this tournament has been a good learning experience for his players and is sure that the recent, closely fought games against South Korea and Iraq have taught the team valuable lessons. “Our players gave their all throughout this tournament, but unfortunately we weren’t able to achieve our ultimate goal. We’ve made a significant step forward as a group, but we need to learn from our mistakes.”
“We were the youngest team in the tournament which made it more difficult to reach the later stages. We have had some very positive and encouraging moments during the competition, as well as some less positive ones. But we showed great strength of spirit and proved that we were as strong as our opponents. In the end, some small details made all the difference and we will try to learn from this experience,” added Sanchez.
The Qatar national team has already qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and reached the final round of qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with a number of players included in Sanchez’s side having also played under full national team coach José Daniel Carreño. “I think the national team coach has had the opportunity to observe a lot of young players during the last three weeks of the tournament and of course it will be a huge privilege for any player he calls on to play in the national side,” said Sanchez.
Source: www.the-afc.com