Qatar of “competitive spirit” against Portugal of “world top”
“Obviously, we are going to have a very difficult game ahead of us, perhaps the most difficult of what we do in Europe. We know that [Portugal] they are a top team in the world and playing in Portugal makes everything more difficult. We’ll do our best, show competitive spirit, be disciplined and use all the tools available to get something positive out of the game, trying to make 90 competitive minutes,” said Félix Sánchez, 45, in the preview.
Qatar, host to the next World Cup in 2022, have been invited to play in Group A European qualifying competition, with no points in dispute, with Portugal, Serbia, Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan.
The two teams meet again, about a month after Portugal beat Qatar 3-1 in Debrecen, Hungary, in a friendly match marked by the debut of Otávio, who signed one of the Portuguese goals.
Asked about the difficulty of facing Cristiano Ronaldo, the 45-year-old Spanish coach, who has been in charge of the Qatar team since 2017, said that his team will try to make the Portuguese ‘captain’ uncomfortable on the field.
“We have to be ready for any situation, prepared to face any player and any ‘eleven’ in Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players in the world and, even if he does the right things, it’s hard to stop him. We will try to play so that he is not comfortable ”, he said.
Félix Sánchez also stressed that Qatar does not take the field just to see them play: “Sometimes I feel that people think we are just here to play and see the great players, but I believe that we already have a track record in other competitions and we have played against others top teams and players. For us it will be another difficult game and we will try to do our best. ”
The coach wants to see his team “continue to grow and gain experience”, knowing that in these types of games the opponent “will dominate” and have more ball.
“We have to be prepared to play in these circumstances, because they will have more possession and we have to deal with that, trying to create opportunities and have more ball. No games played in Hungary, we played with 10 players an entire part, which made it more difficult. We have to learn from this game and try to play better”, elaborated.
The Portuguese team will face Qatar, on Saturday, at the Estádio Algarve, where, three days later, they will host Luxembourg, in the penultimate meeting of the qualifying phase for the Mundial2022.
Portugal leads the qualifying group for next year’s World Cup, with 13 points, two more than Serbia (11), in second place, and seven more against Luxembourg (six), which is third, with one game less , ahead of the Republic of Ireland (two) and Azerbaijan (one).