Luay Ahmed
Tonight at 7 pm, the Qatar national football team will take on Ecuador in their first ever match at the FIFA World Cup. Qatar, as a nation and as a football team – have been waiting for this moment for the better part of 12 years.
In preparation for tonight’s big match, the Qatar national team took part in two training camps over the summer, the first of which was in Austria and the second in Marbella, Spain. In Austria, Qatar played five friendly matches against the likes of Morocco, Jamaica, Canada and Chile, as well the Croatian under 23 national team. They came away from those friendlies with three draws and two losses, as Felix Sanchez emphasized that the purpose of the matches was to implement tactical plans and improve player fitness.
The Austria training camp was followed by another camp in Spain, where Qatar continued to train and participate in friendly matches. There, they managed to win all of their matches, against the likes of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Albania.
As such, Qatar enter this match on a 6 match undefeated run, and will look to continue that run against an Ecuadorian team who are undefeated in 3 matches since ending their World Cup qualifying campaign. Those 3 matches included wins against Nigeria and Cape Verde, and a draw against Mexico.
Qatar and Ecuador last faced off four years ago, in a friendly match which Qatar won 4-3, with Akram Afif, Al Moez Ali and Hassan Al Haydos getting on the scoresheet. Most of the Qatari squad from that evening are part of the line up for the 7 pm kick off tonight, and will be spurred on by the memories of their most recent match up against Ecuador, as well as 60,000 fans inside the Al Bayt stadium – looking to cheer Qatar on to their first ever World Cup win.
Qatar are starting tonight’s match up in a 5-3-2 formation, which they employed most recently in their Arab Cup campaign. Akram Afif and Asian Cup top scorer Al Moez Ali lead the line up front, and behind them in midfield are Abdelaziz Hatem, Karim Boudiaf and captain Hassan Al Haydos.
Ecuador have named a strong line up for tonight’s match, which includes star players Enner Valencia and Moises Caicedo.
Qatar line up: Al-Sheeb, Ro-Ro, Al-Rawi, Salman, A.Hassan, Ahmed, Hatem, Boudiaf, Al-Haydos, Almoez Ali, Afif.
Ecuador line up: Dominiguez, Angelo, Preciado, F. Torres, Hincapie, Estupinan, Gruezo, Caicedo, Cifuentes, Plata, Valencia, Ibarra.