2022 World Cup: Country profile – Qatar

Factfile on Qatar, who are in World Cup Group A:

Best World Cup performance: First appearance

Other honours:  Asian Cup winners 2019

FIFA ranking: 50th

Main clubs: Al Sadd, Al Duhail, Al Rayyan 

How they qualified: Automatic qualification as hosts

ALSO READ: 2022 World Cup: Country Profile – Ecuador

Coach: Felix Sanchez, 46, moved to Qatar in 2006 after 10 years coaching Barcelona youth teams. The Spaniard guided Qatar to the Asian Cup title in 2019 and now has a mission to get the World Cup hosts past the first round. Sanchez started at the Aspire Academy, training the Gulf state’s young athletes, but was under-19 coach and under-23 coach before taking on the national side. Sanchez helped Qatar win the Asian under-19 title in 2014 and has brought many of the players into the national side for the World Cup campaign.

Key player: Qatar are counting on Akram Afif for the goals needed to get the victories required in the group. Afif, who will be 26 two days before the November 20 start of the World Cup, was born in Doha to a Tanzanian footballer father and Yemeni mother. He played for the Qatari-owned Eupen team in Belgium as well as Sporting Gijon in Spain before joining Al-Sadd, who were Qatari champions in 2021 and 2022.

Group fixtures

November 20: Qatar v Ecuador

November 25: Qatar v Senegal

November 29: Netherlands v Qatar  

Squad

Goalkeepers: Meshaal Barsham (Al-Sadd), Saad Al-Sheeb (Al-Sadd), Yousef Hassan (Al-Gharafa)

Defenders: Tarek Salman (Al-Sadd), Pedro Miguel Ro-Ro (Al-Sadd), Bassam Al-Rawi (Al-Duhail), Boualem Khoukhi (Al-Sadd), Abdelkarim Hassan (Al-Sadd), Musab Khoder (Al-Sadd), Homam Ahmed (Al-Gharafa)

Midfielders: Karim Boudiaf (Al-Duhail), Jassem Gaber (Al-Arabi), Abdulaziz Hatem (Al-Rayyan), Mohammed Waad (Al-Sadd), Ali Asad (Al-Sadd), Assim Madibo (Al-Duhail), Salem Al-Hajri (Al-Sadd), Mostafa Mashaal (Al-Sadd)

Attackers: Akram Afif (Al-Sadd), Abdelrahman Moustafa (Al-Duhail), Khalid Muneer Mazeed (Al-Wakrah), Hassan Al-Haydos (Al-Sadd