In sweltering conditions at the Al Sadd stadium, Qatar were off to an impressive start, opening up a 2-0 lead within 15 minutes. But as the match progressed, the hosts wasted plenty of opportunities to score, which would have frustrated coach Felix Sanchez on the night.
Qatar’s both goals came from the highly-rated Akram Afif, who showed his calibre with a slick display of technique as he found the net with ease. However, the 20-year-old benefited from some impressive build-up play and passing from his teammates.
Afif first found the net in the fourth minute but Qatar were lucky to keep the goal, after the ball had clearly gone out of play. A throw-in from the touchline by Abdulrahman Anad was collected by Moez Ali, who ran past two Turkmenistan defenders into the box. But in doing so the Qatar forward clearly took the ball out of play, which was not picked up by the officials. Ali then picked up an unmarked Afif with a great pass, and the forward slotted home to the right of the top post to give Qatar a head-start.
Qatar’s play brimmed with belief, with Afif, Moez Ali and skipper Ahmed Moein troubling the opposition. Moein had a golden chance to double the lead, but the captain fired wide, from just inside the box.
The second goal, however, was around the corner and it was gifted by the Turkmenistan skipper Atayev Selim in the 15th minute. Anad intercepted a mistimed pass from Selim and laid it on to Moein, who played a perfect through ball to the waiting Afif, who took a couple of deft touches and found the net with ease.
From thereon, it looked like it would rain goals from Qatar. But to the dismay of Sanchez and a sizeable home crowd Qatar wasted numerous chances to increase the lead.
Moez Ali, playing as central forward, ran in hard with his speed catching the opposition unaware on many occasions but he lacked the finesse to finish as he glanced his header wide off the post, with plenty of open space available. Moez Ali was also brought down in the box couple of times, but the referee waved off the penalty shouts much to the relief of Turkmenistan.
With just three minutes remaining for the half-time, Qatar’s Bassam Alrawi came close in the 43rd minute but his free kick sailed just wide of the right post.
Qatar continued to threaten after the break, with Afif carrying much of the workload. Five minutes into the second half, Afif, who plies his trade for Belgian club KAS Eupen on loan from Villarreal, found Moein with just goalkeeper to beat. But the captain sent the ball wide.
Turkmenistan, which played most of the game in their own half, defended stoutly, relying on counterattack to score. And their first real chance came in the 53rd minute, when Rejebov Berdimyrat’s left-footed shot was well saved by Qatar goalkeeper Mohammed Ahmed al-Bakari.
Afif, meanwhile, was prowling in the opposition box for his hat-trick and he almost had it in the 58th minute. But his low shot was anticipated by keeper Berdiyev Dovletyar, who dived to the left to make a neat save.
In the 66th minute, Afif once again looked dangerous as he ran past Turkmenistan defenders after a nice pass from Abdullah Abdulsalam. But Dovletyar was there to deny Qatar’s talisman his much-deserved hat-trick. Sanchez soon replaced Afif by bringing in Nasser Ibrahim al-Nasr, as the Qatar coach chose to preserve his star striker’s energy from the sapping humidity for future matches.
Even in the closing stage, Qatar had slew of chances but failed to find the net, which left Sanchez shaking his head in disbelief at the touchline. Qatar’s next match is tomorrow against India, who lost to Syria 0-2 earlier in the day. While Qatar will go into that match too as the overwhelming favourites, Sanchez will hope his boys will show more clinical display than they did against Turkmenistan.
Related Story
