2019 World Cup (U-20). Introducing the opponent: Qatar national team

27.05.2019 13:07

Photo fifa.com

Ukraine's second U-20 national team contender World Cup in Poland - the team of Qatar, for which, as for us, this tournament is the fourth in history. The match will begin today at 19.00.

And in the very distant 1981, the Qataris, having the title of vice-champions of Asia, reached the final, where they lost to the German national team. After that, they did not leave the group (1995, 2015). Given the crushing defeat of the Nigerian national team in the first round (0: 4), it is likely that the current team will go home after the first stage.

But do not jump to conclusions. After all, the semi-finalists of the 27 Asian Championship, which includes two of the top three scorers of the tournament - Abdulrashid Umaru (2018 goals, best result) and Hashim Ali (7, shared the second or third place), will take part in the match with Oleksandr Petrakov's wards on May 5 with a Korean sniper).

Qatar has recently been given special attention to football in preparation for the 2022 World Cup. And this generation of footballers, who will be 2022-22 years old at the time of the 23 World Cup, has certain hopes.

Back in 2004, Doha Sports City (Aspire Zone), an international sports center, established an academy to train future champions, known as the Aspire Academy. There is no shortage of funds in Qatar (we remember how Neymar transferred from Barcelona to PSG for space money), so the opportunities at this academy are very serious.

However, the strength of the Qatari championship is not very impressive, so the academy has signed contracts with several European clubs (Cultural Leones (Spain), LASK (Austria) and Eupen (Belgium)) to get the best young students playing practice at a qualitatively different level.

As part of the team that led the Portuguese Bruno Pineira at the Asian U-19 Championship in 2018, four (including the top scorer - Umaru) represented "Eupen", five (including - the second scorer Ali) - "Leones Cultural".

Currently, only three players from Eupen are in the application. But the team also has other players with European experience. For example, goalkeeper Shehab Mamduh, defender Yousef Aymen, the same forward Umaru. And midfielder Khaled Mohammed is a pupil of English Leeds. However, all this did not help Pineira's wards to play with the Nigerians at least a draw.

Qatar national team U-20