Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | U-19
17.10.2018 14:17 in : &

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Former champions Qatar will be hoping to reclaim the AFC U-19 Championship trophy as the biennial event kicks off on Thursday in Indonesia with 16 continental teams targeting title glory.

In a historic achievement, Qatar won the 2014 edition held in Myanmar after defeating North Korea in the final and subsequently qualified for the FIFA U-20 World Cup staged in New Zealand the following year.

The 2014 triumph helped Qatar significantly in strengthening their pool of players as it unearthed stars like Akram Afif, who is now a key member of senior Qatar team. Afif scored the winning goal in Qatar’s 2014 title win.

The Qatar U-19 team – under coach Bruno Miguel – has been preparing for the event for the last few months playing a series of friendlies.

Last week the Qatar squad reached Indonesia well in advance to acclimatize with the conditions.

The young Al Anabi brigade is undergoing intensive training in Indonesia ahead of their tomorrow’s opening match against regional rivals UAE.

Qatar are placed in Group A along with the hosts and Chinese Taipei besides the UAE. The former champions will play their second match against Indonesia on October 21 before taking on Chinese Taipei in their final group game on October 24.

Japan will be defending the title as they won the previous tournament two years ago in Bahrain, thanks to a tense penalty shootout win against Saudi Arabia.

Hosts Indonesia will begin their bid for success against Chinese Taipei at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Thursday.

Three stadiums will be used for this year’s AFC U-19 Championship, namely the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta itself, the Patriot Candrabhaga Stadium which is to the east of Jakarta’s metropolitan area and the Pakansari Stadium in Bogor located directly south of Indonesia’s capital.

QATAR SQUAD: Humam Amin, Abdullah Saie, Abdulrashid Ibrahim, Yousif Ayman, Nasser Abdelsalam, Ali Mal, Mohamed Waad, Khalid Mohamed, Hashim Ali, Khalid Waleed, Mohamed Khalid, Shihab, Mamdooh, Nasser Saleh, Ahmed Yassir, Baha Mamdooh, Yousif Razaq, Ahmed Suhail, Nasser Ber, Issa Ahmed, Adam Hamdi, Abdullah Nasser, Ahmed Janhi, Salah Zakariya,  Marwan Sharif, Ahmed Minhali and Mahmoud Ibrahim

COACH: Bruno Miguel

THE GROUPS

Group A: Indonesia, UAE, Qatar, Chinese Taipei

Group B: Japan, Iraq, Thailand, DPR Korea

Group C: Vietnam, Korea Republic, Australia, Jordan

Group D: Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, China PR, Malaysia