HAMILTON, New Zealand: Qatar coach Felix Sanchez is pleased with the
attitude of his players, saying his feisty team will ‘work harder’ in
the remaining two games at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

South American giants Colombia on Sunday were fully tested by a
resolute young Qatar side that went down 1-0 after Joao Rodriguez
scored the only goal of the match in the 24th minute at Waikato
Stadium.

Qatar next play Portugal on June 3 and then Senegal three days later
at the same venue.

“I cannot tell you what will happen in future games but we are going
to give our best, just as we did today (against Colombia). InshAllah
we will get our reward,” Sanchez said after the Group C clash.

“I think the attitude the players showed today shows that we will get
something,” Sanchez added.

“We are not going to give up. We are going to keep trying, keep
fighting. We will work harder,” the Qatar coach said.

“Everybody wants to win; we want to win,” Sanchez said.

“But I cannot say anything against my team. They tried hard,” the coach added.

Sanchez said his side earned the respect of his rivals on Sunday.

“We know that this is a big tournament in the world. The top teams are
here and it is hard to get a good result,” Sanchez saidز

“But I think it was a very close game and there were 11 players on the
field who respect us a lot. They had to work very hard to get the
result. There were many players who respect my boys,” the Qatar coach
said.

Sanchez said ‘nerves’ played a part in his side losing momentum for a
while after the Rodriguez goal in the first half.

“I think after the goal we got a little nervous from the situation and
we couldn’t play the way we wanted to play. Colombia is one of the
best teams in the tournament,” Sanchez said.

“I will say that we started very good, especially in the first 10
minutes. After that – let’s say up to the 25th minute, there was a lot
of respect for both teams because nobody wants to take (too) many
risks because it is a first game in such a big event. Unfortunately
they scored a goal,” the Qatar coach said.

“It was a very close game. It could have been the other way around for
us – we could have won or it could have been a draw,” he said.

Columbia coach Carlos Alberto Restrepo called on his players to
‘improve their game’.

“We were defending a lot in the second half. We played too much to
their game,” Restrepo said.

“We do have to get better. We got a positive result but it doesn’t
mean we are doing everything good. We have to improve every aspect of
our game,” he added.

“In the second half, we were kind of losing friction. We don’t
normally play like that,” the coach said.