L’ Alcidia, Spain: Substitute Khalid Muneer took the plaudits as he

scored late in the second half to grant Qatar a 1-1 draw against Atletico

Madrid in the second round of Group B in the L’Alcúdia International

under-20 Football Tournament, at Els Arcs Municipal Stadium, L’ Alcudia.

Having lost their opening match to Chile; the draw revived Qatar’s hopes

of reaching the quarter-finals when they next take on Gunia Equatorial

on Wednesday.

Coached by former Qatar u-16 manager Oscar Fernandez, the Spaniards

dictated most of the exchanges throughout the first half, however, Qatar

were the first to pose a serious threat when striker Hassan Ahmed bizzarly

squandered a golden chance after being set up ny winger Abdulrashid

Umaro inside the six-yard box.

Cano Pekes opened the scoring for Atlético just tow minutes before halftime

when he headed home a Tony Vargs cross past Qatar keeper Ahmed Al Bakri.

For Qatar’s yongsters, despite glimpses of quality in the opening session, a heavily

dissimilar line up to the one that played Chile 24 hours prior had to wait until

the second half to shine, as the introduction of trio Abdulla Abdulsalam, Khalid

Muneer and Tarek Salman helped pace matters for Joao Pereira’s men, forcing

Atletico to retreat in a bid to withstand pressure, nonethless, Qatar were justly

rewarded the equalizer just seven minutes before the final whistle when a defensive

blunder saw goalie San Roman fumble the ball right towards the right foot of Khalid

Muneer who smashed the ball into the back of the net.

The Torneo Internacional de Fútbol Sub-20 de L’Alcúdia (L’Alcúdia

International Under-20 Football Tournament), better known as

COTIF, is an annual international invitational football competition

for youth teams, open to both clubs and national and autonomous

teams, held in L’Alcúdia, Valencia since 1984.

Qatar features in Group A alongside Chile, Guinea Equatorial

and Spanish club Atliteco Madrid.

Qatar is preparing for the GCC U-19 tournament set to take place in

September, as well as the AFC qualification group in October.

The boys in maroon have already conducted a training camp in Turkey
besides playing friendly games against Levante and Villarreal CF.
The Qatar squad will continue their preparations following their
return to Doha, Qatar Football Association said on Sunday.

Qatar line-up:1 Mohammed; 5 Bassam (8 Addullah, m. 16), 6

Khalid, 7 Abdulrahman (10 Muneer), 9 Hassan, 12 Khalifa, 14

Meshaal (4 Tarek, m. 28), 15 Hussain (3 Ilys, m. 36 TA), 17

Abdulrasheed (11 Mubarak, m. 36), 18 Ahmed (20 Moustafa, m. 36)

23 Abushanab.

Atlético Madrid line-up:13 San Román; 4 Toni, 8 Toni Vargas, 10

Spoljaric (6 Gómez Da Costa, m. 52), 11 Juan Moreno, 15 Perea, 16

Pekes (19 Ángel Torres, m. 52), 17 Nacho (9 Jaime Almagro, m. 52), 18

Keidi Bare (7 Rubén Fernández, m. 52), 20 Muñoz y 21 Daniel Hernández.