Inexperienced Qatar pay for errors at Asian Cup
By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Qatar coach Djamel Belmadi thinks his side has a bright future, including potentially when the Gulf State hosts the 2022 World Cup, despite crashing out of the Asian Cup on Thursday after two defeats.
The Qataris came to Australia with high hopes after winning the Gulf Cup at the end of last year but a 4-1 humbling by United Arab Emirates and Thursday's 1-0 defeat to Iran means they will go home next week.
Algerian Belmadi said he was proud of his players after they put in a much better performance than against the Emiratis and thought they would gain valuable experience from their campaign.
The only goal of the night was well taken by Iran's Sardar Azmoun but resulted from Qatar giving away possession in their own half.
"Experience is so important. Our average age was 24 or 25 years old and most of players had never played in a tournament before," he told reporters.
"They can learn in many ways, first to deal with the environment, the stadium was filled with Iran fans today and we are not used to that in our country, also by the intensity of the game.
"I think the players now know that any wrong pass or lack of control can have a big consequence the game. At this level we pay cash for any mistakes and we learned that today.
"I still believe in this group. They have quality and if we take care of them, we can have a better team."
Qatar looked solid and well-structured throughout but lack a cutting edge near goal, where recent African import Mohammed Muntari was leading the line.
"If you don’t score goal, it’s always very difficult to win," Belmadi conceded.
"We have always had a problem with this position in previous years. But in the future, I think Muntari will improve and I am happy with his performance."
Belmadi said there was plenty Qatar could do to help the players improve over the next few years and expects the existing team and the Asian champion under-18 side to form the core of the 2022 side.
Former Asian Player of the Year Khalfan Ibrahim was left out of the starting line-up for the Iran match having scored Qatar's only goal against the UAE and Belmadi was reluctant to talk about his selection policy.
"First of all, he wasn't at the Gulf Cup and we won. Noone asked where he was then," the coach said. "It was more about tactics than anything and I prefer to talk about the players that played."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by ...)
