Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | First Team
27.07.2021 2:11 in :

Phoenix, ARIZONA: Influential player Pedro Correia is thrilled with Qatar’s fighting quarterfinal win over El Salvador on Saturday.

Qatar, the Asian champions, beat El Salvador 3-2 to reach the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“We achieved our goal, which was to reach the semifinals of the tournament. It was the important thing for us when we got to the venue,” Correia said.

“We played a great match, especially in the first half in which we scored two goals. In the second half, we scored the third goal, but we went defensive, which was a mistake. In addition, we were also a little slack after scoring two goals.

A brace by Almoez Ali and Abdulaziz Hatim’s strike saw Qatar race into a 3-0 lead before El Salvador pulled two back to give the reigning AFC Asian Cup champions a nervy final 25 minutes.

Qatar, however, held on for the win, which propels them into a semifinal against the United States, who beat Jamaica at Dallas yesterday.

“We conceded two goals, which increased the pressure on us during the match. But in the end, we achieved the desired goal, which was to win the game,” he added.

Regarding the pressure of matches due to playing every three days, the right full-back said: “Certainly, there is a lot of pressure through travelling and moving from one place to another. All of this puts weight on the players, but notwithstanding that, we won the match and qualified for the semifinals.”

After a 3-3 draw in the opening match against Panama, Qatar have beaten Honduras, Grenada and El Salvador in their first foray into the tournament.