Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | U-23
27.01.2018 22:13 in : &

CHANGZHOU: Coach Felix Sanchez on Saturday praised the performance of his young side, saying they played in extremely trying conditions in the third-place play-off at the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

On Friday, Qatar beat Korea Republic 1-0 after Akram Afif scored the only goal of the match in the 39th minute at Kunshan Sports Centre where snow-like conditions greeted the players.

“It was a match in which the players showed a lot of pride and heart. Those were extremely tough conditions to play in,” Sanchez said.

“Nobody wants to play in such conditions but Qatar players showed great heart,” he added.

“We were up against a tough team. They are a well balanced side. We won five matches from six games. It is satisfying to see the positive results,” he said.

“We were only beaten in a penalty shootout so overall it was a memorable show,” the coach said.

Qatar launched their campaign with wins over Uzbekistan, Oman and China in Group A. In the quarter finals, Qatar beat Palestine but lost to Vietnam in a penalty shootout.

Qatar ended the 16-team tournament in third place, a notch better than their fourth-spot finish in 2016.

On Saturday, Uzbekistan beat Vietnam in the final.