CONCACAF
El Salvador and Qatar delivered one of the most dramatic Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals ever, with El Salvador nearly rallying from a 3-0 second-half deficit in a match that ultimately ended 3-2 in Qatar’s favor.
The Cuscatlecos may have come up just shy in their bid for a first-ever Gold Cup semifinal, but they sent a clear message to the rest of the region that any team facing El Salvador will have a fight on their hands for the full 90 minutes.
“I’m hugely proud. I think you’ve seen over the last three months that we’ve been together that we’re growing. We have a lot of confidence in the team and our abilities and what we think we can do,” said El Salvador DF and captain Eriq Zavaleta.
“I think [Head Coach] Hugo [Perez] has done a great job of getting us on the same page and bringing in new players and I think we’ve proved that to a lot of people throughout this tournament that we’re not an easy game. It’s a difficult way to end it, but we should be proud of how we showed ourselves throughout the tournament,” added Zavaleta.
Zavaleta also believes the performance of El Salvador in this Gold Cup will provide a big lift for what will be a crucial upcoming 12-month stretch.
“This is a group that is never going to give up, we believe in ourselves. We lost 1-0 to, in my opinion, the best team in Concacaf in Mexico, and I think we had the better of them in the second half, so that shows a lot of confidence and a lot of belief in what we’re doing and the path we’re on. Hopefully, we’ll take some of this momentum and learn from it and take it into the Final Round of World Cup Qualifying,” said Zavaleta.
For Qatar, the win brings them closer to their ultimate objective of winning the Gold Cup. While it was a nervy final half-hour for the reigning Asian champions, maintaining their defensive shape helped Qatar prevent El Salvador from finding a late equalizer.
“It’s great to be in the semifinal. We have one more step to go to get to the final, but it’s a pleasure that we are playing this tournament. We’re putting forth a good effort in this competition. We have one more step, we are wishing to take the cup because it would be very exciting for us,” said Qatar DF Homam Elamin.
“It was an intense match. There was too much pressure when they scored the two goals, but we tried to be compact, we tried to close and defend well. We took the game and we won, and now we have one more step,” concluded Elamin.