Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | First Team
14.05.2021 23:47 in :

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean – Association Football unveiled the schedule of matches for the 2021 Gold Cup, which will be held in the United States from July 10 to August 2, with the participation of our national team, the 2019 AFC Asian Cup champions.

The tournament draw placed Qatar, participating as a guest team for first team in the history of the competition, in Group D alongside Panama, Grenada and Honduras.

Our team will open its campaign against Panama on the 13th of July, and will then face Grenada on the 17th, before concluding the group stage against Honduras on the 20th.

Mexico, the defending champions, are in Group A, along with El Salvador and Curaçao and one of the teams from the preliminary round, while the US will play in Group B, with Canada, Martinique and a preliminary winner.

As for Group C, it consists of Costa Rica, Jamaica and Suriname, in addition to a preliminary round qualifier as well.

Qatar – the 2019 AFC Asian Cup champion – is the seventh country to be invited to compete in the Gold Cup, the first from the Arab world, and the second to represent the Asian Football Confederation in the competition after South Korea.

Prior to this, Brazil (1996, 1998, 2003), Colombia (2000, 2003, 2005), Peru (2000), Ecuador (2002), South Africa (2005) and South Korea (2000, 2002) participated in the tournament as guest teams.

Tournament format

The 16 teams in the group stage have been divided into four groups of four teams each, with single round robin league. between them, where they will qualify for the second round, the first and second of each group, to play in the quarter-finals, within the knockout stage, which will be played as follows:

The group stage will have 16 teams, divided into four groups. The four teams in each group will play a single round-robin league between them, to decide who will qualify for the knockout stage, with the winner and runner-up of each group going through to the quarterfinals.

The knockout stage will be played as follows:

Quarterfinal 1: Group D winner x Group A runner-up
Quarterfinal 1: Group A winner x Group D runner-up
Quarterfinal 1: Group C winner x Group B runner-up
Quarterfinal 4: Group B winner x Group C runner-up

Semifinal 1: Winner of Quarterfinal 1 vs Winner of Quarterfinal 4
Semifinal 2: Winner of Quarterfinal 2 vs Winner of Quarterfinal 3

Final: Winner of Semifinal 1 vs Winner of Semifinal 2

Preliminary Round

The preliminary round matches of the 2021 Gold Cup will start on 2 July 2021, which will see 12 CONCACAF member associations competing for the last three places in the 16-team group stage. The matches will include matches played across 2 matches, as follows:

First round

Match 1: Haiti against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Match 2: Guatemala vs Guyana
Match 3: Trinidad and Tobago vs Montserrat
Match 4: Cuba vs French Guiana
Match 5: Guadeloupe vs the Bahamas
Match 6: Bermuda vs Barbados

Second round

Match 7: Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 6
Match 8: Winner of Match 2 vs Winner of Match 5
Match 9: Winner of Match 3 vs Winner of Match 4