Sanchez names 26-member Qatar squad for historic World Cup debut

At exactly 20:22pm Friday night, the 26-member Qatar squad for the FIFA World Cup 2022 was revealed in a very unique and special way. Coach Felix Sanchez left out Abdelrahman Mustafa from the 27-member provincial squad, which has been training in Spain, ahead of their historic World Cup debut.The timing of the announcement was symbolic to Qatar's hosting of the 22nd edition of the football showpiece event in 2022. The Qatar Football Federation (QFA) announced the squad in a special video depicting the players as mural on important landmarks around Qatar.The Asian champions will kick off the World Cup against Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor on November 20. Also known as 'Al Annabi', Qatar take on Senegal on November 25 at the Al Thumama Stadium and the Netherlands on November 29 at Al Bayt in their other Group A matches.There were no surprises in the final list of squad with Mustafa unfortunate to miss out as FIFA allows only a 26-man roster. The teams can only make changes before the first game of the tournament, and only in the case of serious injury or illness.Qatar's all-time top scorer Almoez Ali and Akram Afif will expectedly lead the attack as the forwards remain crucial to Sanchez’s offensive strategy. Al Duhail striker Almoez – who has 42 goals in 85 games for his country – was top scorer with nine at the Asian Cup. Al Sadd forward Afif, meanwhile, can be lethal playing on the left.With more than 160 caps, Hasan al-Haydos is the most experienced player on the list and the Al Sadd midfielder, who can also play as a winger, will captain Qatar at the tournament.Unsurprisingly, the Qatar squad comprises players whose entire career was built around preparing for Qatar 2022 with 15 of those having been part of the Asian Cup title triumph under Sanchez in 2019. They were also part of the team at the Copa America in 2019, the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2021 and the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021, reaching the semi-finals of the latter two.Sanchez, who has guided many of these players since his time at the Aspire Academy back in 2006, will hope that his core group can create history at the World Cup. The hosts face a daunting task as they are the first team since Italy in 1934 to play at the World Cup without having qualified for the showpiece tournament. Qatar also would want to avoid the fate of South Africa, who remain the only host country to be eliminated in the group stage.But if one quality Qatar players have it's their ability to rise to the occasion. They displayed that spirit in abundance at the Asian Cup in 2019 and also in continental events in the last two years. While odds are stacked against them, Sanchez’s men can spring a surprise or two with big crowds at home rooting for them.The Maroon are scheduled to arrive back home on Monday from their training base in Spain. They will dive into training sessions straight away as they prepare to face Ecuador in the opening game. In the final stage of their preparation, Qatar played a number of unofficial friendlies where they beat Honduras 1-0, Nicaragua 2-1, Guatemala 2-0, and Panama 2-1.SquadGoalkeepers: Saad al-Sheeb, Meshaal Barsham, Yousef HassanDefenders: Pedro Miguel, Musaab Khidir, Tarek Salman, Bassam al-Rawi, Boualem Khoukhi, Abdelkarim Hassan, Homam Ahmed, Jassem GaberMidfielders: Ali Asad, Assim Modibo, Mohamed Waad, Salem al-Hajri, Moustafa Tarek, Karim Boudiaf, Abdelaziz Hatim, Ismail MohamadForwards: Naif Alhadhrami, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Hassan al-Haydos, Khalid Muneer, Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, Mohamed Muntari