Impressive Qatar aim to continue consistent run

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Friday, January 22nd 2016 09:07 AM

Doha: Qatar coach Felix Sanchez stressed his side’s perfect record in the group stages of the AFC U23 Championship will count for little as the tournament hosts prepare to take on DPR Korea in the quarterfinals today. Sanchez’s side notched impressive wins over China, Iran and Syria to finish on top of Group A with a maximum nine points. But despite DPR Korea only scraping into the last eight as runners-up in Group B after picking up two points from their three games, Sanchez is only focused on steering Qatar into the next round. “We start the quarter-finals now, so there is no time for mistakes,” said Spanish coach Sanchez, who will be without Moez Ali due to suspension. “At this time it doesn’t matter how many points we had in the first round because it’s only one game.” Qatar are the top scorers in the tournament with nine goals in three games, with both Abdelkarim Hassan and Ahmed Alaa scoring four goals each to lead the scorers’ chart. “The first round is already finished and I think we did quite well. We got three points in each game, each game was different and we preformed quite well,” added Sanchez. “We have what is going to be a very tough game because DPR Korea have a team that deserves to be in this round. They have a lot of strength in the team and we are going to try to play a good game, to perform well and get into the next round. “We know we have in front of us a really good team, so our objective is only to think about this game and after that we will see what is the next step.”