Qatar will be different at the Asian Cup!

A month before their first match, Qatar sacked head coach Carlos Queiroz, appointing Tintin Marquez. Now, Qatar is not only the first team to advance from the group stage. They also progressed to the knockout stage as group winners (they will only have to face one of the third-placed teams, who qualify through the play-offs). Striker Akram Afif declared after two consecutive wins and clean sheets: "Our best form is yet to come." It's highly likely… that will be the case!

Not only are they the hosts, but Qatar is also the reigning champion of the Asian Cup. Qatar's victim in the 2019 Asian Cup final was Japan – a team considered the top favorite by betting markets. The final score in 2019 was 3-1 in favor of Qatar, and the goalscorers – Afif, Abdulaziz Hatem, and Almoez Ali – are all participating in this year's tournament. They have collectively earned over 300 caps for their national teams, despite their average age being under 30. Afif and Ali scored all four goals in the recent victories against Lebanon and Tajikistan.

Qatar (center) is highly rated in this year's tournament.

When it comes to Qatari football, everyone knows about it: They have the Aspire Academy, established exactly 20 years ago. A team composed entirely of players trained by Aspire won the U.19 Asian Championship in 2014. That same team also won the 2019 Asian Cup and is the core of Qatar's squad for this year's tournament. Their superiority is undeniable: In recent days, no team has been able to surpass Qatar in terms of their on-field cohesion. Tintin Marquez has only been in charge for a month? Yes, but he has been involved with Qatari football for many years, and he was once the coach of… Aspire Academy. Even Carlos Queiroz, who has coached Manchester United, Real Madrid, and has led teams like Iran and Portugal on several occasions, is not as suitable to lead Qatar as Coach Marquez!

Of course, no one has forgotten the disappointment of Qatar at the 2022 World Cup. The most prominent reason was the immense pressure. Winning the 2019 Asian Cup led to expectations higher than the capabilities of this small football nation. On the other hand, the World Cup is too diverse in terms of playing style. From their very first match, Qatar stumbled against Ecuador, a relatively weak representative of South American football. Then they lost to Senegal and the Netherlands. Now it's a different story. Asian football is simpler, and Qatar immediately showed their own identity in their first two matches.

Qatar may not have big stars like Son Heung-min (South Korea) or Takumi Minamino and Wataru Endo (Japan), but they are a very well-balanced team with a highly technical playing style, reminiscent of tiki-taka. Combined with the strong teamwork and camaraderie mentioned earlier, they are truly a contender for the championship. Qatar's actual ability is much greater than what the betting odds suggest. In other words, Qatar, playing in the Asian arena, is a much more manageable team and will find it much easier to play football than they would in the "big league" of the World Cup.

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