RIYADH: Four years after suffering the ignominy of becoming the first host nation to lose all three group-stage matches at the FIFA World Cup finals, Qatar return to football’s biggest stage in search of redemption.
The Maroons once again line up as continental champions, having retained the AFC Asian Cup in early 2024. Yet despite that success, the expectations surrounding Julen Lopetegui’s side remain muted.
Drawn in the group stage alongside Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and co-hosts Canada, Qatar start the tournament with one objective: to prove they belong at the World Cup finals.
Few people expected Qatar to upset the apple cart when they hosted the competition in 2022, but after winning their maiden AFC Asian Cup title in 2019, defeating South Korea, Japan and hosts the UAE along the way, expectations rose significantly.
Qatar certainly looked a bright side, with the dominant duo of Akram Afif and Almoez Ali leading the charge alongside a supporting cast that included Hassan Al-Haydos, Abdelkarim Hassan, Abdulaziz Hatem and Bassam Al-Rawi.
Unfortunately for the optimistic Qatari fans, hopes quickly faded when the World Cup kicked off. Defeats to Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands, and only a single goal from the three games, left them rooted to the bottom of the group, with many questioning whether their continental success had simply been a flash in the pan.
Yet despite the poor showing in 2022, just 14 months months later Qatar were crowned champions of Asia for a second-consecutive time, with Afif once again leading the charge.
The reality, however, is that the Asian Cup has never been a true indicator of success on the world stage. South Korea remain Asia’s best-performing team at the World Cup, yet they have not won the continental title since 1960.
Therefore, Qatar fans are aware that the triumph in Asia is likely to have little relevance to how they perform in North America over the coming month.
The biggest concern, perhaps, is that Qatar’s “golden generation” of players never truly evolved into a second wave of talent. While several key figures from the Asian title-winning squads remain influential, few emerging players have shown that they are capable of carrying the national team into a new era; a situation that is highlighted by the presence of six outfield players over the age of 35 in the squad, the most for any team at this World Cup.
This reality was underscored when the biggest talking point surrounding the announcement of Qatar’s preliminary squad was the inclusion of 42-year-old Sebastian Soria. The veteran striker played 29 minutes in their decisive qualifier against the UAE in October, a sign of how heavily the national team continues to rely on familiar faces.
Qatar’s qualification campaign also did little to ease the concerns. The Maroons were never among the standout performers during Asian qualifying. They finished eight points behind the automatic qualification places in the third round and advanced to the fourth phase where, backed by a home crowd, they edged past the UAE to secure one of Asia’s final direct-qualification tickets to North America.
A disappointing draw against Oman in the first of their two fourth-round match left hopes of qualification in the balance but the 2-1 victory over the UAE was enough see them through.
The squad’s post-qualification preparations for the finals have also been far from ideal. Lopetegui finally has the chance to coach at a World Cup after missing out in dramatic circumstances in 2018, when he was dismissed by Spain just two days before their opening match against Portugal after it was announced, following secret negotiations, that he would take over as manager of Real Madrid after the World Cup.
However, the Spaniard’s preparations for the 2026 tournament have been disrupted by the ongoing regional conflict. It forced all football activity across the country to halt in March, and planned friendlies against Serbia and Argentina had to be canceled.
As a result, Qatar arrive at the World Cup carrying more uncertainty than momentum. The hopes and expectations among many Qataris are not necessarily focused on reaching the knockout stage this time around, they are much more modest: compete well, earn a few points and return home with pride.
Whether they can achieve even this modest goal will depend largely on those same players who delivered the continental glory two years ago. Afif and Ali were the stars of Qatar’s successive Asian Cup triumphs, yet neither of them was able to reproduce that form under the spotlight of a World Cup played at home. Four years on, they have a second opportunity to show the world why they are the champions of Asia.
And that might ultimately be what this World Cup is all about for Qatar: not so much proving that they rank among the best in world, but showing the world that 2022 was not the full story.
