19 Oct 2014
?Myanmar, 19 October 2014: Great success for Qatar’s U-19 national team: The team - consisting of student athletes, graduates and coaching staff of Aspire Academy - secured a place in the AFC U-19 Championship semi-final for the first time since 1990 as well as a place at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with a 4-2 victory over China in their quarter-final at Wunna Theikdi Stadium last Friday.
"Reaching the semi-finals and qualifying for New Zealand next year is a dream-come-true for the players," said Qatar coach Felix Sanchez Bas, who stressed that the early goal from Al Sadi after five minutes was crucial. "When you score very early it gives you more confidence, in the first minutes of a game the players are nervous so we pressed high early on and got rewarded with an early goal. We continued with our game-plan and our mentality was very good in the first-half. In the second half the players knew they were on the verge of qualifying for the semi-finals and for the World Cup so they were maybe a bit too excited and we conceded.”
The focus of the Qatari team is now on the upcoming game on Monday where they are going to face the host Myanmar in the semi-finals of this AFC U-19 Championship in Yangon.