Qatar meet Bahrain with pride at stake

Qatar football team players warm up at a training session in Sydney yesterday.

AFC/SydneyCoach Djamel Belmadi will be looking to the future when already-eliminated Qatar take on fellow Group C casualties Bahrain at Stadium Australia today in a match where pride will be the main motivator.The young Qatari squad arrived in Australia on a high after winning the Gulf Cup last November but a confidence-sapping 4-1 loss to a rampant United Arab Emirates side, followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat to Iran brought them down to ground with a thud.Belmadi has refused to dwell on the negatives and said that the team had learned a lot from the Asian Cup and the experience would stand them in good stead for future tournaments.“The competition looks different for us. We cannot qualify for the quarter-finals. Bahrain are in the same position as us. They have also lost both games. Like us they will like to leave the competition with a win,” said Belmadi.“This is good preparation for the future. We have a young team and this is a game against an opponent who we may face in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. That itself is motivation for us to give a good performance,” the Qatar coach added.The coach said that Qatar did not have a first eleven and there would be new faces in the team to meet Bahrain, who they drew 0-0 with in group action at the Gulf Cup.“We will make a few changes to the team which played in the first two games. We will see some new players tomorrow (Monday),” he said. “We are not like UAE, a team which has played together for five years. With a team like that, you know their starting eleven. We do not have a starting eleven. We might see two or three new faces. Changes will be based on our tactics for the match.”With Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, there is a lot to look forward to and Belmadi said that victory over Bahrain would put the team back on the right path.“I do not know who will be in the squad in 2022. We have young players now, who might be available for the 2022 World Cup,” he said. “(Also) there are some promising young players in the U-18 squad. It is important to be competitive because we are the host nation. I will do my best to prepare the players for the 2022 World Cup.”Bahrain coach Marjan Eid too said his team aims to end the tournament on a high by beating Qatar. “We look for this game as we played two games very well but lost by mistakes,” Eid said yesterday. “In this match we look to continue, as this is important for experience, especially as we have a young team. I hope the final game proves good for Bahrain and we take three points.” The 35-year-old Bahraini has only been in charge of the national side since November, when he succeeded Iraq’s Adnan Hamad who was dismissed during the Gulf Cup—just three months after being appointed. Eid refused to talk about his future, only saying that his focus was on beating Qatar. “I have still not discussed things with the (Bahrain Football Association) board of directors or president as we’re still in the tournament with one match remaining. When we’re back in Bahrain we’ll discuss if we continue or not, when the tournament is over.” Eid said he does not intend to make wholescale alterations to his team. “(There could be a) couple of changes, one or two maximum as it is an important match,” he said. Bahrain’s coaching merry-go-round has been spinning rapidly since Anthony Hudson took over from Argentine Gabriel Calderon in August 2013. The Englishman was replaced by Hamad when he left to take charge of New Zealand, but the Iraqi was then rapidly dismissed during Bahrain’s winless Gulf Cup. Bahrain’s track record with coaches is similar to that of Qatar, who have been through 30 coaches since 1990. At the Asian Cup, Bahrain were beaten 2-0 by three-time winners Iran before going down 2-1 to UAE, when they conceded the tournament’s fastest record goal after just 14 seconds. “That was a mistake, we should have put the ball out,” Eid said of that goal. “My players will learn from that if they face the same situation in the next match.”