Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | First Team
11.10.2021 23:46 in :

DUBLIN, Republic of Ireland: Asian champions Qatar will take on the Republic of Ireland in a 2022 FIFA World Cup, European Zone, qualifying match on Tuesday.

Currently ranked 43, Qatar have arrived in Dublin on Sunday from Algarve, where they played 2016 Euro winners Portugal on Saturday.

Coached by Felix Sanchez, Qatar will be looking for their first win in five matches played in September and October.

On Saturday, Qatar lost 3-0 to Portugal that featured Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Republic of Ireland, ranked number 50, are coached by Stephen Kenny. Liverpool keeper Caoimhin Kelleher is set to make his senior start against Qatar.

Tuesday’s meeting will be only the second match between the two sides. Early this year, Qatar and the Republic of Ireland played a 1-1 draw at Nagyerdei Stadium in Hungary back in March.

In the press conference preceding the match, Qatar coach Felix Sanchez confirmed his side readiness for a physical opponent. “coming off the Portugal game, we expect an equally complicated clash against Ireland, they are a solid team with many quality players, plus, they will enjoy home advantage”, Sanchez said.

He added, “against Portugal, we experienced a very high level of pressing football; it’s all part of our learning curve as a team, as we are slowly building up towards the World Cup in Qatar next year”.

The Republic of Ireland have won four of their last five home friendly matches. Stephen Kenny’s side won their previous two matches against Bulgaria in September 2019 and New Zealand in November 2019.

For the hosts, Stephen Kenny made sure to give Qatar their due ahead of tomorrow’s game while revealing he has no intentions to make sweeping changes to the lineup that beat Azerbaijan last week. “There won’t be wholesale changes, but there will be some,” he said, “The objective is we would like to win the game, but we’ve got to earn the right to do that”.

“Qatar have had good results over the years; they are a very attacking team, they commit everything. They like to control a lot of games even against the better teams; we’ll have to play really well, and we want to experience winning at home.”

On the other hand, the maroons are without a win in five matches in all competitions (D1 L4) since beating El Salvador 3-2 in July when they featured in CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Earlier on Sunday, Qatar defender Abdelkarim Hassan said the team must avoid mistakes that were seen during the match against Portugal.

“The mistakes cost us a lot today. When elite teams like Portugal are your opponents, the fewer mistakes, the better, they exploited the mistakes we made,” Hassan.

“We need to evolve as a team to reach the right shape we want to be in for such matches. In general, the experience of playing Portugal remains beneficial, and we will strive for the best in the next stage, starting with the Ireland match.”

The match on Tuesday will be broadcast on Al Kass Sports Channel besides being shown live on Sky Sports Premier League.